


Waking Up to Ash & Dust

by oflittleuse



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Multi, Time Travel, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-15
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 15:09:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 45,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/927952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oflittleuse/pseuds/oflittleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is only one way to stop a zombie apocalypse - you need one reincarnated Queen, a living dead King and an immortal sorcerer. Mix in some terminator-style time-travel and the darkest of magic. Of course, before stopping the apocalypse you need to survive it first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Distant Waters

**Author's Note:**

> So many people to thank! First, the super awesome artist aqualillium whose artwork is amazing! Her enthusiasm and talent kept me going during some of the harder moments of writer's block. Also my beta's wanderlust and scotscookie. Wanderlust who helped at the end going over the plot loops of time travel and putting things in order and Scotscookie who helped at the very beginning with some necessary SPAG and Brit-picking! Of course, huge thanks to Muppet for another wonderful year of PL! 
> 
> This piece was inspired by a cross over between The Walking Dead, the "Croatoan" episode of Supernatural and the Terminator. Told through the POV of Gwen, Merlin and Gwaine. Please mind the warnings: character death and violence! Enjoy!

****  


￼ Prologue

  


 

“It’s beginning,” the dying man said. He sat with detached interest as his wounds bled past the hands of his friend. “The end is nigh.”

“Don’t give me that end is nigh crap,” his friend snapped. “I can save you.”

“No,” the man gasped. “It’s too late.”

His friend sat back, biting his lip and glancing around past the distant sound of guns and the shouts of men. The man marveled at how the soldiers seemed to run right past them, unseeing of their plight. It was as if the man and his friend were invisible. Perhaps they were. It would not be the first time.

“I hate this part,” his friend said. The man laughed, or tried to, he choked on the iron-flavoured liquid that pooled in his throat. He wondered, blindly, if he would choke before he succumbed to his wounds. 

“Not much better for me mate,” the man tried to laugh once more. He reached into his pocket and was scared how numb his body felt. It took all his strength to clutch at the key hidden in it’s depth. Motioning his friend toward him, the man placed the key in his hands. 

“I can’t,” the friend shook his head, closing his eyes against the sight of the key, as if it physically hurt to have to see the dark little key, coated in mud and a bit of lint. 

“Can’t have her rusting on me. Take care of her and she’ll get you anywhere you’re going,” the man sighed, feeling some of the tension drain from his body. The pain was distant now, his body gone and hollow. It wouldn’t be long now. “Let her take you back to him. It won’t be long now.”

“Can I ease your pain?” his friend asked, and the man simply shook his head, wishing he had the strength needed to caress his friend’s sharp cheekbones once more. 

“Don’t feel much pain anymore,” the man admitted, his vision kept weakening, the world fading in and out. However, a thought gripped him, a sudden vision of what he needed to warn his friend against. “Morgana unleashed more than the dorocha.”

“What?” His friend asked harshly, his hands fisting his shirt, it was a distant feeling now. “What did you just say?”

“It won’t be long now, they are coming,” the man gasped, struggling to tell his friend before the world stayed dark. “Albion’s time of need. I saw it. So soon. And a man rising from a lake. You must be careful Emrys.”

“Where have you heard that name? John?” his friend demanded, and he wished he could answer, wished he could find the strength needed to ease all of his friends doubts and fears. “John!” 

As the world faded and his strength left him, the man raised one shaking hand to his friend’s face. On his dying whisper he tried to put all his love into his final word. 

“Merlin …”

***

****  


Chapter One: Distant Waters

  


 

￼

The tree bark was rough against her fingertips where they brushed against the upper branch. She stretched as far as she could, her feet curling up on her tip-toes, in a desperate attempt to reach further than her tiny arms would allow her. She was very proud that her search for the tallest tree on the tallest hill had been so successful.

“It’s too far,” Elyan said, his small round face looking scared as he watched his sister lean even further out from the safety of her branch. 

“Don’t worry,” Gwen said, “I’ve got an idea.”

The branch wasn’t too far away. Crouching down and taking a deep breath, Gwen launched herself out of the tree branch. She hit the upper branch with more force than she expected and quickly tried to wrap her arms around the tree branch as she slid down, her feet kicking in the air below. 

“Gwen!” Elyan cried out, struggling onto the branch Gwen had just vacated. “Gwen!”

“I’m okay,” she said, even as she felt her arms slipping as the gnarled, moss covered bark broke away beneath her grip. Swinging her legs up it took two or three times before she was able to latch one leg over the branch. With concentrated effort, she managed to pull herself up. 

“See, I told you I was okay,” Gwen laughed, looking down on her little brother as he stood below her. 

“Can you see it?” Elyan asked. 

Gwen stood on her branch and peered through the foliage. In the distance she could make out the pristine blue waters of the lake. 

“You can see Hog’s Bay!” She cried out, smiling giddily at her brother. “Come up.”

“I can’t reach,” Elyan said, his face crumpling as he stared nervously at the distance between them. 

“Just grab my hand,” Gwen said, carefully laying down on her stomach so that her hand could reach far enough down. Elyan had always been a little short for his age, and it was a sore issue with him since starting school. 

“What if you drop me?” Elyan asked. 

“Come on, I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, don’t you trust me?” Gwen said. 

“Right,” Elyan took a deep breath, and then leaned forward, grabbing hold of Gwen’s hand and trying to jump for the higher branch, just as Gwen had done. But Gwen was almost a head taller than her younger brother, and he didn’t even touch the branch. His weight pulled on Gwen’s arms and painfully snapped them downward. Already fatigued by the desperate clamber to get on the branch, Gwen felt her arms shake from exertion as she held her brother’s hand, the only thing stopping him from falling out of the tree. 

“Gwen!” Elyan cried out, tears forming as he dangled helplessly. “Get me up!”

Unable to speak, it took every ounce of willpower to get her arms to lift him up so that he could climb onto the branch as well. Elyan was shaking when he finally sat on the branch, breathing heavily as adrenaline rushed through his system. Gwen wrapped an arm around his shoulders, trying to stop the shaking. 

“Is that it?” Elyan whispered. 

Gwen looked and saw they had a clear view while sitting down of the very tip of Hog’s Bay. 

“Yes. Isn’t it beautiful?” Gwen said, smiling at the distant waters. 

“Do you think Dad will take us?” Elyan asked. “I think I would like the lake.”

“Maybe he will,” Gwen lied. 

“Do you think I would be a good swimmer?”

“You would be the best.”

They stayed in the tree for a long time, until the sun got lower and the sky lit up with deep purples and reds. They climbed carefully down from their top branch and giggled in giddy delight as they raced back to their home. Elyan was fast, but his shorter legs made it easy for Gwen to fly past him. 

Their home wasn’t much. The old house had seen better days, and the attached mechanic’s garage her father worked out of had several abandoned vehicles her father kept around for parts. Elyan and Gwen would play hide and seek in the skeletal remains of the cars. Rushing past her favourite red car, Gwen laughed with delight as she was the first one to charge through the open door. 

“The public are warned that Aberdeen will be quarantined until further notice. Officials are saying not to be worried and will be releasing a statement to the public later this afternoon after the …” 

“No running inside,” her father said, quickly turning off the radio. “And where were you two?”

“Just walking,” Gwen said, sending Elyan a pointed look. Their tree climbing exploits were a secret they guarded from their father. He never let them go past the property lines, especially towards the lake. 

“Well, I need some help with the laundry,” Tom said. He picked up the clean laundry from the table and made for the back bedroom. Gwen was quick to toe off her muddy shoes and help Elyan with his. Every Sunday they would help their father put away the clean laundry. Just as they helped every Saturday make and pack the lunches for school the following week. Their Mother used to do it before she died. 

Walking towards the back bedroom, Elyan whispered in her ear, “Should we ask him about the lake?”

“No,” Gwen said firmly. “You never mention the lake to Dad. It just makes him sad.”

“He’s never going to take us there is he?” Elyan asked, sounding so small and sad as he pouted. 

Gwen snaked one arm around his small, bony shoulders and gripped them tightly. 

“I’ll take you someday,” Gwen promised. 

 

￼

“Have a seat,” Professor Gaius said, sitting comfortably behind his cluttered desk. Gwaine sat down trying to appear more at ease than he actually felt. The office he found himself in was a small box with shelves stacked with so many books that not all of them could fit. Piled in boxes on the floor even more books piled out as if it were the scene of a literary explosion. A weak beam of sunlight flitted through the window and highlighted the deep lines of Gaius’ face.

“Something wrong Gaius?” Gwaine asked, ignoring titles and the pomp of university was almost second nature to him. Gaius did not even blink, too used to Gwaine’s own brand of rebellion to even notice. 

“There’s been an opening as one of our TA’s and after some discussion with my colleagues, I would like to highly encourage you to apply. I think this would be a wonderful opportunity,” Gaius said without any preamble. 

“Me?” Gwaine laughed. “I’m a horrible student.” 

For some reason Gaius wasn’t laughing. Instead he was raising one disapproving eyebrow, a clear sign that he was about to enter lecture mode. 

“Gwaine, you are one of the best students at this university,” Gaius stated, and continued to speak over Gwaine as he tried to interrupt to point out the bullshit in that sentence. “Your last paper on bestiality in medieval storytelling has been submitted to several journals. Even Professor Muirden admitted it was a bold, thought-provoking and wonderfully researched paper.”

Gwaine fidgeted in his seat, unused to such direct praise. Especially hearing Professor Muirden had even agreed. That guy was a dick. 

“This would be a wonderful opportunity, and if you applied I can almost guarantee that you would be the perfect person for the job,” Gaius pushed. 

“I thought the faculty had already hired a new TA,” Gwaine said.

“Ah,” he said, absently cleaning his glasses and refusing to meet Gwaine’s eyes. “Yes, it is rather unfortunate but … he won’t be able to.”

“What happened?”

Gaius sighed, put his glasses back on and rubbed a tired hand over his face. 

“He was coming from a city in Canada called Windsor,” Gaius said. “It hasn’t received the same international coverage as the Detroit evacuation, but it too was affected by the illness.” 

“He didn’t make it?” Gwaine asked, feeling his stomach clench and squirm painfully.

“No, no, he was lucky to have escaped. However, the Canadian government has instated a no-fly restriction on anyone who has come from any of the Zones,” Gaius said. “And the University has decided it would not be worth the risk associated with bringing someone with such strong connections to the illness into contact with our student population.”

Gwaine didn’t bother to hide his derision. “Well that’s stupid, there’s more and more outbreaks every other week now. If they follow that logic there won’t be anyone else to hire.”

“It is for the safety of our students,” Gaius lectured. “And besides, it’s beyond the point in this case. Mr. Short is confined to finding employment in Canada for the foreseeable future and we are stuck with an opening.”

“I’ll think about it,” Gwaine refused to commit. 

“That’s all I ask.”

“Tom’s Mechanics, this is Gwen speaking, how may I help you?” Gwen said as she answered the phone, gripping her pen tight as she placed it over the coffee stained notepad.

“I need to schedule an oil change,” Mrs. Smithson said, just as Gwen heard the front door bell ring signaling the arrival of a customer. “I was hoping to make it for this week sometime.”

“We have openings on the twenty-third and twenty-fourth in the afternoon, if that works for you?” Gwen said, checking the schedule. She held up one finger towards the customer, and scribbled down Mrs. Smithson’s contact information under the twenty-fourth. 

“Sorry about that,” Gwen apologized, hanging up the phone and leaning back to greet her customer. The man was clearly in his eighties, with a gnarled face, long white beard and unkempt hair. He seemed frozen by the front door. “Is there anything we can do to help you? Sir?”

The ‘sir’ seemed to shake him, and the elderly man made his way to the front desk. 

“How may I help you today?” Gwen asked pleasantly. 

The old man blinked, moisture gathering in his eyes, no sound came out of his moving mouth. A sense of unease settled in Gwen’s stomach, she knew what the startled look meant. Sighing, Gwen gathered her courage. 

“Have you been in an accident?” she asked kindly. “Do you need a tow?”

“What?” the old man gasped. 

“You seem shaken, has there been an accident? Are you okay?” 

“No, just a flat,” he wheezed. “I’m sorry, you look like someone I used to know.”

Gwen gazed quizzically at the old man. With his wild hair and stooped posture, he looked like a memorable sort, but Gwen was sure she had never seen him in her life. Living in the country, the closest village was barely even five hundred people. Between the small population and isolated location, there weren’t many strangers to these parts. Certainly none as odd as the man standing in front of her. 

“Sorry, can’t say we’ve met,” Gwen shrugged apologetically. “My father should be able to get your car running.”

“That would be great,” the man said. “Thank you.”

Gwen walked over to the door, connecting the small office space to the garage. She grimaced as the rock music poured out as she opened the door. 

“Dad! Dad!” she yelled over the din of music crackling out of the old radio set. The front bell chimed again. Peering back into the bleak office space, Elyan stood staring awkwardly at the old man. “Perfect, Elyan, could you run and grab Dad for me? Tell him he has a customer.”

Elyan nodded, running past into the shop. 

“Elyan?” The old man asked, paling significantly under the harsh fluorescent lights. “What did you say your name was?”

“I’m Guinevere, but everyone just calls me Gwen,” she introduced herself. “My Dad owns the shop here and he’s really good at repairing cars and stuff. He’ll have you back on the road in no time.”

The old man sat down with a thunk on one of the old plastic chairs. He ignored the automobile magazines set on the coffee table in front of him and stared fixedly at the far wall. 

“Have you been to the area before?” Gwen asked, trying to make conversation. 

“Yes, many times,” he said quietly, finally looking back at Gwen. “It’s on my way to visit an old friend.” 

Just then the music stopped and Tom appeared in the doorway, wiping his hands on a greasy towel before offering his hand to the old man. Gripping it tightly, Tom shook hands firmly, grinning at the prospect of a new client almost giddily. 

“Well, friend, let’s see what we can do for you,” Tom exclaimed. “Gwennie, you go make sure Elyan isn’t trying to borrow any more of my parts, I don’t want to see my best parts being used in one of his contraptions again.” 

“Okay Dad,” Gwen said, ducking out of the room. The garage smelled of fuel and sweat. Gwen made her way past Mr. Gray’s car, a constant visitor of the garage, and searched for Elyan. Peering around the workbench, she saw his buzz cut, his almost bald head bobbing as he tried to peer out the window. 

“What are you doing?” Gwen asked, walking up behind him. A good head above Elyan, it was simple enough for Gwen to press her forehead against the dirty window pane and make out the blinding white of the old man’s beard and her father’s broad back as they talked. 

“I’m trying to see the old guy,” Elyan said, bouncing on to his toes. “Can you see them.”

“Yes,” Gwen said, watching with fascination as the old man gestured wildly with his hands. 

“What’s he driving?” Elyan asked breathlessly, tired from his jumping. “Is it really old? I bet it’s a grey car, almost a decade old … he seems like a fossil doesn’t he?”

“No,” Gwen whispered. “Not a car, but it is rather old.”

“A truck? Like a proper lorry?” Elyan asked. 

“Not that many wheels.”

Elyan screwed his face together in concentration. Gwen peered down at him, and waited for the look of amazement as Elyan realised what vehicle it was out front. 

“No way, no,” Elyan whispered, running to the desk and grabbing the rickety-old wooden chair and dragging it underneath the window. With their faces pressed together, they watched as their father and the old man walked around a motorbike, looking like it had come out of an old black and white film. “He drives a motorbike? But he’s ancient!”

“Maybe he looks older than he is,” Gwen argued. “Maybe he’s only …”

“A hundred?” Elyan exclaimed. 

Suddenly piercing blue eyes found theirs through the dirty window panes and with a squeak, Elyan and Gwen dropped to the floor. 

“Do you think he saw us?” Elyan whispered. 

“Don’t know,” Gwen whispered back. 

“Check.”

“You check.”

They stared at one another, a silent battle of wills. Finally, Elyan reluctantly climbed onto the chair and was just about to peer out the window again, when a firm rapping of knuckles against glass startled both of them. In the window was their father’s fondly exasperated face. 

“Run!” Elyan yelled, grabbing Gwen’s hand and yanking her along as they dashed past the cars and out the back door. “Save yourself Gwen!”

And despite being old enough to be painfully aware how silly it was to run around outside with her little brother, Gwen laughed at the freedom of it all. As the two of them raced up and down the back hill, she completely forgot about the odd old man watching them from the lane with sad eyes. 

 

￼

“Last box,” Elyan huffed, putting down the cardboard box on the bare, single mattress stuffed tightly in the far corner of the cramped dormitory room. Gwen had tried her hardest to not pack too much, but she had not anticipated how much space her limited wardrobe took up. The car had been crammed to the roof with barely enough room for its three passengers.

“If you need anything, you call,” her father said, grabbing her in a tight embrace. “If you want to come home we’ll come get you.”

“I’ll be fine,” Gwen promised, even though her throat was tight and her eyes prickled, her fingers tightening against her father’s flannel shirt. “I’ll give you a ring once everything is unpacked.” 

“Good,” Tom said softly. 

Gwen stayed in the tight embrace for a moment longer, trying to imprint the feel of her father’s warm embrace and his spicy cologne deep into her memory. Finally pulling away slightly, Gwen tried not to cry at her father’s glistening eyes. 

“Your mother would be so proud,” Tom said, gently cupping Gwen’s cheek. 

“I suppose I’ll see you at Christmas,” Elyan said, slapping a hand against her back and looking anywhere but at Gwen. His growth spurt had finally hit, and it seemed overnight he had gone from the slightly chubby, five foot little brother Gwen remembered into a tall, lean, sporty teenager. 

Not caring that Elyan thought himself too cool for open displays of affection, Gwen pulled him into a tight hug. 

“Look after Dad,” she said, sniffling slightly. “And don’t get into trouble with Mr. Ericson. He still hasn’t forgiven you for painting that smiley face on his front porch.” 

“He has no sense of humour. It was ironic,” Elyan muttered, shifting awkwardly in her embrace. 

“We had better go,” Tom said gruffly. “Want to make it back before it gets dark. It’s dangerous on the roads.” 

Elyan paused at the door. 

“Hey Gwen, see ya,” Elyan said in a ridiculous accent out of a western movie. Gwen laughed and tipped an imaginary cowboy hat, and then they were gone. 

Heart beating fast, Gwen looked down at the unpacked boxes. She wasn’t sure what to open first. The boxes just sat there and it seemed so final to start putting stuff away. She sat down in the old chair stuffed under the beat-up desk and stared, unseeingly at the boxes, trying to calm her breathing. 

“Oh my god, who was that hottie? Please tell me you aren’t banging him, because damn, I would lick his body.”

Startled, Gwen jumped to her feet and was shocked to find a pretty girl with crazy blonde hair pulled back to a ponytail prance into her room wearing nothing but shorts and a bra. Stuttering, Gwen averted her eyes, trying to not to stare at the half dressed girl in front of her. 

“Sorry, I’m Elena, looks like I’ll be your neighbour,” Elena said, sticking out her hand and enthusiastically grabbing Gwen’s. The force of the handshake was such that Gwen’s arm felt almost ripped out of its socket. “I’m sure we’ll be great friends.”

Gwen could do little more than smile timidly, unsure of how to politely dislodge Elena before her hand was broken. 

Elena’s prediction came true. Within two weeks Gwen and Elena were inseparable. They convinced their respective roommate to switch places and before the end of the first term the two of them were living together. Elena was messy, always leaving random bits lying around, used to having a maid to clean up after her. Gwen would get so focused on work that Elena would need to force her out of the room to get a shower when essays started to pile up on her. 

Never in her life could she remember sharing such a close friendship with someone. 

“When are you heading home for the holidays?” Gwen asked, carefully folding the wrapping paper around the book on knighthood she had bought for Elyan. 

“Father’s in France this year, so I thought I would just stay here,” Elena shrugged, and kept her eyes glued to the laptop she had in front of her as she sat cross legged on bed. 

“You’re staying in residence?” Gwen asked, stopping what she was doing to get a better view on Elena. “But, they close during the holidays.”

“They let international students stay. I already talked to the the Don, it’s fine,” Elena said, still avoiding looking towards Gwen. 

“You aren’t an international student though, and the only other people who are allowed to stay come from the Zones. You’re from not even twenty minutes away,” Gwen pointed out. 

“I’m not …” Elena whispered, finally looking up at Gwen. Her gaze was dull and hurt, far different from the normal glee that Gwen was used to. Slowly, Gwen rose and crossed to Elena’s bed. 

“You’re not?” Gwen prompted, as they shuffled around the bed so that they both had their backs against the back wall. 

“I’m not from here, my father’s family is, so I just told people I was so that they wouldn’t act all weird,” Elena muttered. 

“So, where are you from then?” Gwen asked. Her palms felt sweaty, but Gwen held still as if any sudden movement would break the tense silence. 

“Eastbourne,” Elena said. Gwen couldn’t help the gasp which escaped her. Just barely, she was able to stop herself from jumping up and running far away from Elena. It was hard, everything in her, all the news broadcasts and the papers kept flashing through her mind. “See why I don’t tell people?” 

“So, you survived the Quarantine?” Gwen asked, it seemed impossible that she could know anyone who had lived through the horrors that Gwen had watched on the news. Her entire life had been so sheltered. Just her little brother and father, rolling hills and ancient forests, and the far-off lake haunting them. There were no government quarantines and illnesses that took out entire cities. 

“My father and I had been visiting his family here, my mother was supposed to come meet us … she never made it,” Elena said, silently crying, and unable to stop herself, Gwen wrapped her arms around her friend. “She couldn’t get the time off work, so she was waiting until Friday night before catching the train north. But the illness hit and the city was quarantined, by the time we were allowed in everyone was gone. They said they had needed to take the bodies to safely dispose of those infected. I never saw her again.” 

Elena curled into Gwen’s hug, burrowing her head against Gwen’s neck, silent but violent sobs wracking her body. 

“I’m sorry,” Elena muttered. “But please don’t tell anyone. They hear you’re from one of the Zones and they treat you like you’re diseased or something. I just wanted to start over.”

“I won’t tell a soul,” Gwen promised, feeling horrible for her initial reaction, that deep seated fear that had coursed through her at the thought of knowing someone who might have been in contact with the illness. “Why don’t you come home with me?” 

“Really,” Elena asked, leaning back and rubbing her red eyes dry. “After knowing, you’re inviting me to your home? Would your Dad mind?” 

“He’ll be fine,” Gwen promised. “You’re still the best friend I ever had. I want to spend the holidays with you. Besides, this way people won’t question why you’re allowed to stay.”

“Thank you,” Elena said. She gave a small, watery grin, so very different from her normal beaming smile. 

“You just need to promise me one thing.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t hit on my brother.”

Elena leaned her head back on Gwen’s shoulder and she snorted and laughed. Gwen couldn’t help but laugh at the sound. 

“No promises,” was all Elena said. 

 

￼

The alley was run down and shabby. Rain had started to fall, creating a hushed feel as Merlin huddled against the garbage bin and took a drag from his cigarette. He opened his eyes as he exhaled, viewing the deep blues and muted red bricks of the alley through the haze of smoke.

It was a bad habit. He should quit. If he wasn’t careful he could get lung cancer. 

Merlin chuckled darkly, taking another deep inhale, teeth gently biting the edge, wanting the foul taste in his mouth. He’d been smoking on and off for over three centuries, he figured there wasn’t much hope for him now. Once there had been a gentleman’s pipe and then the fat cigars and then there had been options and new tastes and little fruity cigars that made Merlin lick his numb lips in pleasure. An expanding world with expanding options, always growing and spinning.

Finally as the cigarette was reduced to the mere butt, he tossed it on the ground. Turning up the collar to keep the rain from seeping down his neck, he dashed back across the alley and into the run down bar where his whiskey waited for him. 

It was no accident that Merlin was at this shady establishment. 

Across the poor lighting and worn down bar was none other than Gwaine. He watched the man drink his beer, trying to flirt with the pretty bartender who wasn’t giving him an inch. Gwaine wasn’t backing down though, he had been here every single night for the past two weeks. 

Merlin had been seeing more and more ghosts from his past. The first time had been not even seven years ago, when he had let his age show and he had been on his way back to visit Arthur’s watery grave. Some unexpected trouble with Kilgarragh, his motorbike, had forced him to pull over at the nearest mechanics. 

At the sight of a young Gwen and childlike Elyan, Merlin had practically flown to Avalon, sure that their presence would mean the return of his king. But there was nothing there but still water that taunted him. 

“Anything else?” Katie the bartender asked, pointing toward his empty glass. 

“Same if you don’t mind,” Merlin asked, his voice rough from how little he used it these days and the fag he’d had moments before. 

Katie nodded and poured him a new one. 

“Mind if I stay and chat? That man over there is kind of giving me some problems,” Katie asked, nodding backwards towards Gwaine. “He tips great but he’s a bit handsy.”

Merlin nodded, feeling distinctly uncomfortable being dragged into a conversation. 

“So where are you from?” Katie asked. 

“Ealdor,” Merlin murmured. 

“Never heard of it, is it near here?”

It’s under you, Merlin wanted to answer. Ealdor was nothing more than the dirt beneath your feet, shacks which had since decomposed and land that had since been built on and there was nothing left of it. No trace or mention of his home. Even in myth Ealdor had been forgotten. But Merlin held his tongue and shrugged. There was no point in explaining. 

“You’ve been coming in all week and I don’t think I’ve seen you say two words.” Katie said, leaning forward so that the top of her low cut blouse exposed more of her chest. “Very mysterious.”

“Not really, just nothing to say,” Merlin said, taking a large gulp and glancing back to where Gwaine was glowering at the bar, jealous of the attention the bartender was giving Merlin. He fidgeted in his seat. Merlin was not ready to talk to any of his ghosts. 

“Well, you should talk more, you’ve got a lovely voice,” Katie said. “Is he still looking over here?” 

Merlin nodded, his eyes unable to leave Gwaine’s intense gaze. Merlin wondered if there was a spark of recognition in them, if deep down Gwaine recognized his old friend. 

“I’ve known Gwaine for ages, he’s perfectly harmless,” Katie reassured him. “Sometimes I just need a break from him though. He’s so full of himself. Thinks he’s god’s gift to women that one does. But he won’t hurt you or anything, if that’s what you're worried about.”

His glass was once again empty. Merlin hadn’t even realized he had drunk that fast. 

“I knew a Gwaine,” Merlin admitted despite himself. “One of the best men I knew.”

“What happened to him?”

“He died,” Merlin muttered, twirling the empty glass in his hand, lifting and pressing the coolness against his face. A swell of nausea rose in him, and he swallowed hard as he tried to get the feeling to stop. 

“You okay?” Katie asked. “Do you want me to call you a taxi… sorry, what’s your name?”

“I’m fine,” Merlin muttered, tossing some money blindly on the bar, not caring how much it was. The feeling grew and swelled around him. It didn’t help that he knew what the feeling meant. Stumbling to his feet, he realized belatedly that he had perhaps drunk more than he had thought, as the world spun around him. 

“You all right there mate?” a familiar voice asked, and a pain shot through Merlin so intensely he closed his eyes against it. This however did not help the sick feeling nor did it stop the spinning, and so he stumbled a few more steps before large hands grabbed him. “I think you need some help there. I’ll help you get home, that sound okay mate?” 

Opening his eyes, Merlin saw Gwaine’s face up close, it was achingly similar to how he remembered it, even the light scruff was there. He should shove this man away, he shouldn’t get involved, it might have been over a millennia, but the memories of those long ago days were still too fresh to deal with reincarnated imitations of his old friends. 

“Thanks,” Merlin muttered instead, holding the man closer. 

“See you later Katie. I hope you notice how gallant I am being, helping the weak and saving damsels in distress,” Gwaine said loudly over his shoulder as he helped Merlin to the door. 

“I’m not a damsel,” Merlin muttered. 

“But you are in distress,” Gwaine pointed out, grinning down roguishly. “And helping the helpless might just be enough to help me win Katie’s heart.” 

“You just want her to give you a discount off drinks,” Merlin muttered, thinking of the other Gwaine, who had done that exact thing in almost every bar he had ever been in, whether the bartender was male or female. He briefly wondered if this Gwaine was as free with his sexual exploits, but it wouldn’t do to ask, he didn’t want to know. 

“Let me go,” Merlin muttered as he felt his stomach roll. Gwaine let go in just enough time for Merlin to be sick in the trough of the road. 

“Didn’t think you drank that much at the bar, are you sick or something?” Gwaine asked. 

“Or something,” Merlin muttered. “My flat is just a few streets from here , I think I can manage the rest of the way myself. Thanks though.”

“You sure?” 

“I’m fine.”

“Well I suppose I should get back to marking,” Gwaine sighed, running a hand through his long locks. 

“Marking?” Merlin couldn’t help but ask, it seemed to be unthinkable that Gwaine would be in any sort of teaching profession. 

“I work at the university,” Gwaine said simply. “If you’re sure you can make it home mate, I’ll leave it to you then. You sure you’re okay?” 

“Yes, I live not even two minutes away,” Merlin said truthfully. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Okay, well, try not to die,” Gwaine laughed, before pushing a piece of paper into Merlin’s hand. “Call me once you’re in, otherwise I’ll be worried you're dead in a ditch somewhere.”

Merlin barely remembered making it back to his flat. Small and cramped, he had first bought it centuries previously. It was a number of small places and hide-aways he had accumulated over the centuries. At the time, it had been a stopping ground as he decided to throw himself into academia, enjoying the release of being surrounded by the artifacts and manuscripts from his own time. Those days of robes and musty libraries were long past him now. 

Instead a tired Merlin flopped down on the bed and groaned into his pillow. He knew in the morning the sickness would have claimed a new town. This time it was closer to home, he only ever got sick when it was on Albion’s soil. The foul magic John had warned him about years ago twisting his insides and leaving him shaking. 

It passed quickly of course, but in his mind's eyes he could see the infected, and knew, deep down, they were already doomed. They had been for over a thousand years.


	2. Forward Steps in a Backward Direction

**_~Camelot~  
7 Days to Samhain's Eve_ **

Time travel was not what Gwen expected. She had thought it might be intensely painful, as if each cell were taken apart and put back together in a slow agony. At best she expected a more Harry Potter style of time travel where everything would rewind and she would see the Camelot of legend being remade from the ruin she had been standing in.

Instead it felt like a blink. Painless but extremely disorienting ... and she was completely naked. Naked and she could see a feeble old man sitting in a chair. Luckily the old man, whoever he was, seemed completely off his rocker and hadn’t even looked away from the window to see her standing there, completely naked. A quick glance around the room didn’t show any clothes that Gwen could wear. 

Her initial beginnings of worry turned into full-fledged panic when she heard the footsteps of someone approaching. Grabbing a blanket off the bed, she quickly wrapped it around herself as the door opened. 

A familiar figure with shocking white hair entered. 

Even though she knew, logically, that she would be seeing people whom she had seen die, the reality of it was far different then she had anticipated. She felt cold and hot and her emotions were doing things she didn’t understand, but caused her stomach to twist painfully and her heart to beat fast. She had no idea how Merlin had survived this entire time. 

“Gaius,” she gasped. 

“Gwen?” He said, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her wrapped in the sheet. 

“Gaius,” she said, trying to think of a lie as fast as possible. “I’m ... super ... sick right now. I mean, I was sick all over my dress and I really need a new one, do you think you might be able to help me?”

“You are ... super ... sick?” Gaius asked. Cursing her modern words to hell and back, Gwen decided the best defense was a good offense. 

Clutching her mouth, she made for a bucket, making sure to do some very convincing dry heaves, even though it made her actually feel nauseous. Luckily she had some practice from when she was little and had made a habit of playing sick so she could read all the new Harry Potter books. If her father had ever caught on to the suspiciously timed sick days, he had never said anything. 

“I’ll get Merlin to bring you up some new clothes,” Gaius said hastily. “Then I want you to come straight to my chambers to be examined.”

Giving Gaius the thumbs up, she suddenly realised that might be too modern, or worse, Roman, and settled for an awkward waving of the hand. As she heard the front door close, she stopped dry heaving and quickly stood up. 

“You’re not Gwen,” the old man said, causing Gwen to jump out of her skin. 

“Yes I am, um, sorry, who are you again?” Gwen asked. 

“An impostor, magic must be involved,” the old man said, getting more and more agitated. 

“What? I’m not an impostor, I was just kidding, of course I know who you are ... sir,” Gwen said hurriedly. Trying to place who this man could be. But besides being a slightly deranged and older version of Giles off Buffy Gwen was at a loss. 

“But, for fun, I’m going to call you Giles, how about that?” Gwen said cheerfully. 

“Guards!” the man yelled.

“Okay, I won’t call you Giles! Just please stay calm, sir,” Gwen pleaded. 

The man was having none of it though, and his yells were getting louder. Desperate to make the man shut up, she shoved an apple in his mouth. It was crude, but it worked. 

Trying to stay calm, she tried to take stock of her surroundings. First thing was figuring how far away from Samhain's Eve she was. If Merlin had messed up the spell and placed her after Samhain ... well ... then Gwen would be screwed. 

Trying to stay positive, she reminded herself that it was a miracle she had even made it this far. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know how far off Samhain's Eve is, do you?” Gwen asked, taking the apple out of the man’s mouth. 

“Guards!” The man yelled. 

“Never mind,” Gwen sighed, stuffing the apple back into the man’s mouth. 

Pacing the room, she wondered how long it would take Merlin to get her clothes. If they would be far away or close, and suddenly she was seeing many missing holes in the descriptions of Camelot that she had been given. Such as the fact that Gwen had no idea where her house was supposed to be. She briefly remembered something about a lower town, but she had no idea where that would be located from where she was currently pacing. 

It seemed to take ages before there was a tentative knock in the door. 

As Merlin came in with an air of caution about him as if were afraid she would be sick all over him, Gwen was once again thrown off balance. If she hadn’t been expecting him she would never have recognized him. Gone was the dark and slightly menacing stranger or the aloof protector she had known and loved. Instead he seemed so young, despite the fact he was roughly the age he preferred to show to the world. 

It was the smile, Gwen decided, she had never seen him smile that way. She wondered when he had lost that smile over the centuries. Perhaps it was after Arthur. 

“Gaius said you needed a change of clothes,” Merlin said, holding out the blankets. 

“Yes, thank you Merlin,” Gwen said softly taking the offered clothing and taking a step back. 

“I told you that you needed to take a break,” Merlin said fondly. “There are other maids that can help tend to the King. If you keep this pace you will make yourself sick ... er, more sick.”

“Of course, King,” Gwen said, throwing a panicked look towards the King, whom she had apparently gagged with an apple. Not even an hour into the past and already she must have committed several treasons, not even counting the magic needed to bring her here. Still, King or not, the man was obviously not all together, and so Gwen took a chance. “He’s having a bad day, he did not even recognize me. He thought I was an impostor.”

“Why don’t we call up another Maid and you let me escort you home,” Merlin offered and Gwen could have wept in joy. For the first time since the outbreak she felt that luck was finally working in her favour. 

“That sounds lovely,” Gwen said, but then paused as she looked down at her clothes. “You wouldn’t mind turning around for a minute.”

“Of course not,” Merlin said and gave Gwen some privacy to try and get into the period clothing which was a lot more complicated than Gwen’s preferred hoodie and jeans. The clothes were a bit too big for her, and Gwen knew it would be from the lack of food over the past few months. She just hoped it would not be too noticeable. Finally presentable, she let Merlin know she was ready to go. 

Just as they were leaving the King’s chambers, Merlin held the door for her. 

“Thanks,” she said as she slipped through and waited for Merlin to lead the way to her house. 

“When did you cut your hair?” Merlin asked. 

“Oh, last night,” Gwen lied, and missed the dark look that passed over Merlin’s face.


	3. The Outbreak

￼

“It’s known as a manicure and I swear to god, if you tell me you have a phobia over freaking glittery ass nailpolish, I will smack you.”

Gwen groaned and tried to shove her hands further into her pockets. As if that would protect her cuticles from the horror of the sketchy nail salon Elena was dragging her into. 

“I am not a girly girl,” Elena ranted. “But even I know the benefit of a good manicure.”

For the most part Elena was a kindred spirit to Gwen. It was nice to know someone who she could relax with. Some one she could drink a beer with as they watched sports and stared unabashedly at all the perfectly rounded arses on the screen and decided, if they had to, which one would they rather have wild passionate sex with? Of course, with a new outbreak sweeping through London, most major games had been cancelled. 

Despite being kindred spirits every now and then Elena’s upper class upbringing was brought to the front. The manicures were one such time. 

“There is no benefit,” Gwen argued. “They hurt.” 

“You need to toughen up,” Elena teased. “Just think how pretty your fingers will look! Maybe Professor Gwaine will see you sitting there, paying attention to his lecture, and see your dazzling nails and simply throw himself at your feet and ravish you silly.”

“Right in front of the class?” Gwen asked. 

“Gwen, you exhibitionist little minx, I never knew.” 

“Shut up,” Gwen laughed. 

The bell rang as they entered the nail salon. 

As her nails were being manhandled by the nail artist, Gwen glanced out the large front windows and frowned. Military men were rushing down the streets as a crowd of people dazedly walked down the cobbled lane. Sitting up in her chair, she blinked hard and tried to understand what she was seeing. 

“Elena?” Gwen asked, but just then several men in uniform burst through the door. 

“Everyone out! Go!” They yelled, waving their guns toward the door. Gwen looked down at the nail artist across from her and could see a mirror image of the intense fear that swelled up in Gwen reflected back at her. The woman’s hands shook as they let go of Gwen’s. In a mass of confusion, the women shuffled out of the shop, only to be joined by the swelling masses in the street. 

“What’s going on?” Gwen saw Elena demand as one of the men grabbed her wrist and forcibly shoved her onto the street. 

“Evacuation,” the man grunted. “Hurry.”

Gwen felt a thrill of panic hit her. Evacuations were becoming more and more frequent as the unknown illness appeared with even more deadly force. Everyone knew most people didn’t make it out of an evacuation alive. There were never enough busses, never enough planes, the news would lament the government’s lack of preparation as thousands died, and still no word on what the illness was, no idea of what symptoms to look for. 

“Elena!” Gwen yelled, grabbing Elena’s hand as the crowd of people, growing every minute, tried to push her away from her friend. 

“Gwen,” Elena cried, wrapping her arms around Gwen’s waist in a desperate attempt to not get separated. “We need to move.” 

It was a jumble of limbs, pressing so close it was impossible to breathe. A living sea of people that swelled and shifted. Someone elbowed her in the mouth, and the tang of blood told her it must have cut her lip. She heard Elena cry in pain, but there was no way to turn and check on her. The only thing to do was cling to Elena’s arms around her waist and move along with the crowd of people. 

“Gwen!” a voice yelled. In a blind panic, Gwen tried to find whoever was calling her name. The flashes of fabric, scared faces, and crying children were overwhelming to the senses. A mother was jostled beside her, the infant in her arms looking up at Gwen with wide, scared eyes. 

“Gwen!” The voice called again. Suddenly a hand wrapped around her shoulder and she found herself pressed against a solid, chest. “You need to get out of the crowd.”

The hands pulled her sideways, she felt Elena’s arms slip as a man ran into them. It was only Gwen’s own frantic grip that kept them from being separated. 

Finally making her way out of the crowd they stumbled into a small alleyway barely more than a shoulders breadth wide. Taking a gulping gasp, she pulled Elena forward and hugged her close. 

“YOU THREE!” A soldier yelled, making his way toward the alley. “You can’t be there.”

The man, a slender tall man with dark hair, stood between the girls and the soldier. 

“You should keep going,” the stranger commanded the soldier. 

“Either you move or we are under orders to shoot,” the soldier yelled, holding up his weapon. Gwen felt her knees go weak and she clung tighter to Elena. The soldier started towards them and suddenly it was if a wind picked him up and sent him flying back into the crowd. 

“We need to move,” the stranger said, grabbing Gwen’s hand as he started to pull her down the alleyway. In a fit of panic, she clawed at his hand, making him yelp and let go. “Gwen!”

“How do you know my name?” She asked desperately. “What the hell just happened? Who are you?”

“We need to evacuate,” Elena said. “We need to get to the buses.”

“They’re already at the buses!” the man said, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “The only way out of the city now is on foot.” 

“Who’s already at the buses?” Gwen asked. 

“The infected,” the man said, sending a slightly panicked look out of the alleyway. “If you want to survive, you’ll have to trust me.”

The man once again grabbed Gwen’s hand and urged her into a run, bursting out of the alleyway into a deserted street. It was there, as they rushed into another alleyway, cutting between buildings and slowly leaving the sound of the mob behind them that the first scream started. Elena faltered, hesitated, but the man was still forcing Gwen to run. 

“Elena!” Gwen yelled, reaching her hand back, relieved when Elena grabbed it and the three ran, the man leading the way, forcing them into a brutal pace that had their legs weak and lungs aching. 

They finally stopped running a few blocks away in the middle of the street on the edge of the campus. The man looked down the roadways, and Gwen was sure she must be bordering on hysteria because his eyes seemed to glow yellow. 

“Damnit,” the man cursed.

“Why were they screaming?” Elena whispered to Gwen gazing at her with wide and terrified eyes. “It was if something was attacking them.”

“That’s because something was attacking them,” the man said. “We need to get off the street.” 

“Who are you?” Gwen asked again. “How do you know me?”

“Listen, we don’t have time,” the man said. “If you want to live you need to trust me.”

“Trust you? You won’t even tell us who you are!” Gwen said. 

“Damnit, I’m Merlin, okay? My name is Merlin and right now I am the only thing keeping you alive.” The man, Merlin, said, grasping Gwen’s shoulders and forcing her to look at him. His face was unfamiliar, a complete stranger’s, and yet there was something about him that seemed to settle her. She took a deep, calming breath and searched those startling blue eyes for any sign of deception. 

“Okay,” Gwen finally said. “Merlin. What do we need to do?”

Gwaine saw the soldiers and knew immediately what was happening. He thought of all the safety drills staff had been forced to go through that had expounded on how they would evacuate the school, who would have first priority and what they were supposed to do. Over and over again, Gwaine had been told his job was to help get the students to safety, but he could see the soldiers were already herding them away from campus, supposedly to the buses. There was nothing he could do for the students that the soldiers were not already doing.

Instead of following orders, he turned on his heel and ran towards the library. Gaius had said he would be spending the day deep in the stacks, and with all the commotion, Gwaine had to make sure that Gaius knew to get out. 

“You there! Stop!” A soldier tried to grab him. Not giving himself time to think, Gwaine quickly punched him square in the nose and kept running. Hoping the man wouldn’t shoot him in the back as he ran to the library. 

The library stood on the opposite side of campus. By the time Gwaine reached it, the campus had become eerily quiet, the crowds of panicked students and frazzled faculty thinning out. 

Gwaine burst into the library. The check-in desks and coffee stand were completely deserted. Their empty seats and quietness did nothing for his nerves. Not bothering with the elevators, Gwaine took the stairs two at a time. 

Gaius would be on the fifth floor, at the very back of the building. No student was ever allowed back there, and Gaius had a horrible habit of forgetting to sign in. Which usually lead to mass confusion and the archivist complaining to the Dean. Now though, it could mean Gaius would be left behind. And everyone knew, when there was an evacuation, the people left behind never survived. 

He turned the corner and … no Gaius. Cursing his luck, Gwaine started to run through the dark maze that was the archival stacks. The university boasted Britain’s third largest collection of medieval documents and right now Gwaine was cursing its size. 

It was with crippling relief that Gwaine spotted the white hair bent over the ancient texts, deep in the stacks hidden in a small alcove in the wall. 

“Gaius!” Gwaine shouted, skidding to a stop in front of his mentor. “We need to go!”

“Go? What’s happening? Why are you all out of breath?” Gaius asked, raising one critical eye as he made no motion to leave. Instead he calmly flipped over the page in his white gloves and continued reading. 

“We need to go now,” Gwaine said. Grabbing the old volume with his bare hands, he ignored Gaius’ hiss of disapproval as he shoved it unceremoniously back into its archival box. 

“Gwaine! That is a priceless manuscript!” Gaius yelled. 

“There’s an evacuation and if we don’t leave now we’re done for,” Gwaine yelled back, grabbing Gaius’ shoulders and forcing him into a clipped walk out of the archives and down the stairs. 

“An evacuation! Why didn’t you say so!” Gaius scolded. 

The quiet of the library still chilled him. Books and backpacks were left at the study tables, an eerie after-image of the mass confusion of just moments previously. It could not have been more than an hour since the evacuation had started. Gwaine had a moment to note how pathetic it was that the military was so used to evacuating cities that they could empty out a whole university so quickly. 

As they ran out of the library something caught his eye. Across the grounds, in front of the biology lab, it looked as if some sort of barrier of heavy metal looking boxes had been put up over all the doors. 

Gwaine scanned the windows, and his stomach clenched at the sight of red splattered amongst several of them. He tried to tell himself it was only paint. However, there was no denying the very obvious handprint smeared on the glass. 

They barely made it two blocks away from the university when the first screams hit them. Stopping dead, in the middle of the street, Gaius and Gwaine hesitated. Wails of terror and pain were getting louder, though still distant. 

“Let’s go back,” Gwaine suggested, already taken a step back. 

“But we need to evacuate,” Gaius said, though he too was backing up a step. 

“It doesn’t sound like the evacuation is going too well,” Gwaine said. He grabbed hold of Gaius’ arm and helped him along, urging him to move faster. “Come on, we need to find some shelter.” 

 

￼

Merlin was careful to set up several barriers around the dormitory they had snuck into. The university would have been one of the first places evacuated, and a quick look with his magic into the halls and rooms had shown they would be safe there for the time being. Not forever though.

He left Gwen and Elena alone in the dormitory room. 

“I’ll check the perimeters,” Merlin had lied. He wanted to give the girls some space. 

Elena and Gwen hadn’t stopped shaking and clinging to each other, and he knew having some stranger standing over them wouldn’t help. Or maybe that was also a lie. He thought of Gwen’s deep chocolate eyes searching his, how he felt himself hold his breath a little bit, thinking maybe she would remember, that she would see something she recognized … but nothing. Merlin was just a stranger. A strange stranger who knew her name. He had even de-aged since their first meeting, so she wouldn’t even be able to place him from that distant memory back at her father’s garage. 

“What are we doing?” He heard Elena whisper. The walls were thin, and reminded him of his flat in the nineteen-sixties which had paper thin walls such as this. 

“We’re trusting him,” Gwen replied. She sounded calmer now, a bit more like the Queen he remembered. 

“Those screams …” Merlin heard Elena sniff quite loudly and there was a ruffle of sound. 

“It’s going to be all right. We’ll get through this.” Gwen promised. Merlin wished she hadn’t. There was nothing worse than not being able to keep a promise. And I promise to save you or die by your side. He closed his eyes against the old pain, and leaned against the hallway wall. 

“I wonder if my mum went through this,” Elena said, it sounded a bit muffled. “Are we just supposed to wait until we get sick? I mean, we don’t even know what the symptoms are.”

“You won’t get sick,” Merlin said, finally getting to his feet and entering the room. He didn’t bother to hide the fact that he had been listening into their conversation. He knew how bad things truly were, his magic had rebelled and sickened him far worse than ever before, before any military man had arrived to take them away. It had been three days of bed sickness before the evacuation started.

Elena and Gwen were curled up on the bed. They looked like scared children, huddled together against the unknown. He was amazed to find them so close, to his knowledge Gwen and Elena had barely anything to do with each other back in Camelot. Then again, Merlin reminded himself, these weren’t his old friends, just their ghosts. 

“What do you mean?” Elena asked. 

“It’s not the sort of illness that you simply get,” Merlin explained, taking a seat on the floor and letting his magic strengthen the wards around them. “As long as we’re not bitten we’ll be fine.” 

“How do you know so much about the illness?” Gwen asked. 

“Because I’ve lived through these evacuations,” Merlin said simply, thinking back to when the attacks had first started. How naive he had been, to run off and think he would be able to stop what was coming. Merlin should know by now that there was no stopping destiny. 

“No one lives through the evacuations,” Elena said. Both girls flinch as Merlin moves to make himself more comfortable against the hard floor. He tried to ignore the pain of their distrust. 

Merlin has nothing to say to that. He has seen what happens, how the fever spreads and burns out the soul inside. He’s seen how the dead rise and eat on the flesh of anything that crosses their path. And he’s seen how the magic claims all those infected, feeding into the chasm that Morgana had created all those centuries ago when she ripped open the veil of death. 

The girls don’t speak now that he has returned to the room. Though he notices that they are not shaking as hard anymore. Gwen pulls her hoodie a bit closer around herself, her chocolate curls hiding her face, though she keeps glancing his way. Elena just closes her eyes and hides her face in Gwen’s shoulder, curling up like a giant cat and trying to find some sleep. 

The room is mostly intact. There is a picture on the dormitory wall of two girls, both in university gear. Merlin wonders which one this room belonged to. Chances are whoever it was is either devoured by the infected or currently stumbling along the streets looking for a piece of live flesh to feed on. The picture looks happy. 

The sun starts to creep down and the room gets darker. As a bright red shines through the window Elena’s snores start to fill the room. 

“You should get some sleep,” Merlin finally says. Looking at where Gwen is still staring at him, Merlin wonders what she sees. If she can feel their old friendship somewhere in there, or if she’s scared of the stranger who somehow knows her name and has survived the evacuations when no one else does. 

“What about you?” Gwen asks, quietly so as to not wake her friend. 

“I’m fine. But it will be a hard next few days, and I’m not sure when we’ll get another night’s rest,” Merlin says. “Get some sleep.”

Gwen doesn’t say anything, merely joins Elena under the covers. The room is getting darker faster now. Merlin stands and stretches. 

“How did you know my name?” Gwen whispers. 

“Because we knew each other … a long time ago,” Merlin says truthfully. “I’ll be right outside the room if you need anything.”

He leaves the room quickly. 

His magic warns him of two people approaching the dormitories where they are currently hiding. He sneaks a glance into the room where the two girls are just starting to get some sleep. Sleep is going to be a rarity until they get out of the city. It was too precious to give up. 

He snuck down the hallway towards the pull of his magic. Cursing his lack of foresight, Merlin wished he had a sword or gun or something which would make dispatching of the infected easier. If he needed to he could magic something to use, but it was never as good. 

He heard shuffling down the hall. There was barely any time to be confused by the speed in which the infected seemed to be moving. Merlin had only ever witnessed them as a slow moving mass of piranhas.

They were moving so fast that Merlin barely had time to prepare himself until the two figures came around the corner and were coming straight at Merlin. Instinctively Merlin used his magic to push the two figures up against the wall and pin them to it. 

“What the fuck!” One of the figures cursed. 

Which was odd. Infected usually did little more than grunt or growl. Their mouths snarled and drooped like a rabid animal. 

Merlin hesitated as he got closer to the figures. It would be just his luck if the infected had somehow learned to talk and he ended up getting Elena and Gwen killed. He had been responsible for enough death over his centuries of living … he did not need to include two innocent girls, mere ghosts of the past, to the list. 

The light was so dim by now that he could only make out the short, shocking white hair of one of the men he had pinned. The other figure fought against his magic, tried to pull at it, but Merlin simply tightened his hold. 

He was only an arms width away when he recognizes his prisoners. Gwaine is glaring at him, flipping his hair out of his eyes to stare him down. The other man, Merlin realizes with a kick in his stomach, looks exactly like Gaius. He had not seen his father-figure since Camelot. Breathing deeply, Merlin fought to hide his emotions. He had enough practice by now that it took little effort to keep his face from showing his grief. 

Still, he did not let them go. 

“Have you been hurt?” He asked. 

“You mean besides being smashed against a wall?” Gwaine bites out sarcastically. “No, we’re the picture of perfect health.” 

“You haven’t been bitten?” Merlin asked, lowering his voice and adding just a tiny bit of magic to help coerce the truth out the men in front of him. 

“What? No! Bitten by what?” Gwaine asked, so bewildered that Merlin knew they mustn’t have stumbled across any of the infected yet. If they had, there would be no doubt as to who Merlin was referring to. 

With a sigh of relief Merlin releases them. Both men crumple as they hit the floor, and Merlin can’t stop himself from rushing forward to help Gaius off the floor. Instantly feeling little better than when he had been a young boy knocking over Gaius’ medicines in the physicians chambers. It was odd now to look at this sixty-something, almost seventy year old, and feel deep within him a sense of wonder at how young Gaius is. 

“What the fuck was that?” Gwaine asked as he lay crumpled on the ground. “How’d you pin us?”

“Magic,” Merlin answered truthfully, acknowledging Gwaine’s scoff with a slight nod of his head. It had been easy in the past century to hide his magic behind the truth. The world had left magic behind long before in its attempt to master the sciences, and people’s disbelief was more freeing than anything Merlin could have expected. 

“I’m sorry,” Merlin apologized to Gaius. “I wasn’t sure if you were infected or not.”

“I can understand your worry, but you should not go around tossing people against walls,” Gaius scolded him. “Some people don’t recover as fast as you young people.”

“I’m not that young,” Merlin said sardonically. 

“Hey … are you not that guy from the pub?” Gwaine asked, getting so close to Merlin that his breath ghosted over his skin. “Yeah … you were the drunk who puked on the street.”

“Glad you remember me,” Merlin muttered, quickly focusing on reinforcing his wards. Once satisfied that he would once again be warned if anything came into the building he turned back to Gaius and Gwaine. “Come, we have a room set up right now. It would probably be safer if we all stay together.”

“Wait .. who are you?” Gwaine demanded, stepping in front of Gaius and glaring at Merlin. 

“You know, people keep asking me that,” Merlin said, before turning on his heel and walking down the hallway, smirking to himself as he heard the two men follow slowly behind him. 

 

￼

Gwaine woke up to find himself in a painstakingly familiar room. It had been a few years since he had slummed it out in the student dorms, a poor uni student trying to desperately cram as much partying into his academic life as possible. Of course, now he got to judge the bastards who thought they could hand in a paper that was obviously done while nursing a hangover and popping aspirin. Still, the unmistakable smell and damaged walls, where the paint had been peeled back from the many posters which had graced the space over the past decades, it was no mistaking where exactly he was.

It did take him a moment to remember why exactly he was there. For one painstaking moment, he was afraid that one of his pupils had managed to beguile him into their beds, but the lack of nakedness and a distinctly clear head seemed to rule out that possibility. Pulling back the sheets, he peered over to the neighbouring bed, crammed as it was into the corner and blinked a few times at the familiar wrinkled face and shocking white hair. 

It seemed impossible to see Doctor Gaius in a student dormitory.

And yet there he slept under the blankets and snoring slightly as he turned over and made himself comfortable, never once waking. 

Gwaine stood up, still dressed in the clothes he had been wearing all of yesterday and quietly made his way out the bedroom. He paused in the corridor and blindly wondered which way the bathroom was. 

“You sleep okay?” a voice asked from beside him. Jumping, he looked down to see the strange man from the pub curled up against the wall, blinking up at him as he exhaled a puff of smoke. 

“Did you sleep on the floor?” Gwaine asked incredulously. “You realize there are about three hundred beds in this place right?” 

“I’ve slept in worse conditions,” the man said blithely, waving off Gwaine’s concern. “Were you looking for anything?” 

“Bathrooms,” Gwaine said. 

The man pointed down the hallway and waited for Gwaine to nod in understanding before he took a long drag from his fag and closed his eyes in near bliss. After making it to the bathroom and relieving his bladder, he noticed the man had started another fag. 

“Cheekbones, I hope you know that this is technically a smoke-free zone,” Gwaine said. 

“What did you call me?” the man asked, gazing up and smiling brightly at Gwaine. The smile was so different from the normal frown Gwaine had seen so far, and seemed at complete odds to the image of a serious stranger that Gwaine had. 

“I called you cheekbones,” Gwaine said. 

The man laughed and his eyes crinkled in mirth. He flicked his fag to the ground and stomped on it as he stood up. He stretched out his hand. 

“I’m Merlin,” the man greeted as Gwaine took his hand. “It looks like we’ll be stuck together for a while. You should probably at least know my name.”

“Merlin? Like the wizard?” Gwaine asked, smiling. 

“Yeah … like the wizard.” 

Merlin leaned back against the wall and Gwaine noticed a backpack at his feet. In it seemed to be filled with cigarette packages, granola bars, water bottles and socks. He glanced back up at Merlin quizzically. 

“Packed are we?” Gwaine asked. 

“We’re going to need to be moving soon,” Merlin said. “We need to get out of the city. I’ll wake the girls if you wouldn’t mind bringing Gaius into the room next to yours. I’ll let them know that we have company.”

Gwaine nodded, watching as Merlin ran a hand through his dark locks and messed them up so they stood on end. Merlin seemed very protective of the “girls” he traveled with. While Merlin had mentioned the two girls, he had yet to see any sign of the them. 

Walking into the shared bedroom he noticed a distinct stillness on the opposite bed. Peaking from the bundle of covers Gaius watched him in silence.

“You heard him then?” Gwaine asked, nodding towards the door. 

“Yes,” Gaius sighed, turning over on the bed and struggling to get up. “I suppose we must go see what it is he plans to do.”

 

￼  
￼

Merlin tried to keep focused as he sat in a room beside the ghosts of his past. It would not do to think of his past friends and who these people used to be, in a life they could no longer remember. The suspicious looks he was getting from all of them were enough to help remind himself that he didn’t actually know any of these people.

“Professors!” Elena gasped, as Gwaine and Gaius entered the room and hovered in the doorway. 

"Are you three students here at the university?” Gaius asked. Merlin caught the uneasy gaze his past mentor sent to him.

“Yes, well, Gwen and I are,” Elena said, flapping one arm in Gwen’s general vicinity. “We’re actually in your second year lecture Gwaine, I mean professor.”

“Just Gwaine,” he said, flipping his hair slightly and smiling down with an oozing charm radiating from his every pore. “As a group of abandoned evacuees I think first names are fine.”

“Right, Gwaine,” Elena murmured, blushing a deep red. 

“I hope you do not flirt with all your students,” Gaius reprimanded a completely unfazed Gwaine, even with the raised eyebrow being directed fully in his direction. The tone was so achingly familiar that Merlin couldn’t help but lash out. 

“If we are done with the getting to know each other we need to get moving,” Merlin said. 

“Right Princess,” Gwaine teased, and it felt so wrong to have him use that word with Merlin, that it made him feel physically ill. “So, what’s the grand plan?”

“We need to get out of the city,” Merlin said, his mind already speeding ahead of him as he thought of all the plans and possible pitfalls that they might face as they tried to get out of the city. “I have a storage space just outside of the city center. If we can make there we can get away.”

“What about the buses?” Elena asked, piping up from where she was huddled against the bed. “Should we not see if the buses are still here?” 

“They are, that’s the problem,” Merlin said. “They are overrun with the infected and if we go there we will all die. I have means to get us out of the city as soon as we get where we need to be.”

“Why should we trust you? Why should we believe some sketchy guy that if we go to this magical address that we can escape this illness. No one escapes it. Not ever.” Gwaine asked, leaning against the back wall. 

“Merlin has,” Gwen said fiercely, causing Merlin to start in surprise. “Merlin has escaped from the evacuations before and he saved us earlier from that crowd. If you don’t want to come with us you don’t have to. No one will force you.” 

“Gwen.” Merlin muttered, feeling slightly unbalanced to hear her defend him. “It’s fine.”

“Didn’t mean any offense by it,” Gwaine said. 

“We won’t have time to go home and pack will we?” Elena asked, effectively taking the subject to safer ground. 

“No, I am sorry,” Merlin apologized. “We’ve waited too long anyways. The longer it takes for us to leave, the less likely we will make it out of here alive.”

“Then let’s get going,” Elena commanded, standing up and reminding Merlin distantly of the past Queen she had grown to be later in her life the first time around. “We can discuss sketchiness or the lack thereof later once we’re all safe.”

Merlin looked towards Gwaine as the man hovered protectively in front of Gaius and could practically hear the wheels in his brain turning as he decided whether or not it would be smart to travel with their small gang of people. However, Gwaine’s internal debate was quickly settled once Gaius stood up. 

“I am ready to go then,” Gaius said. “I hope you have a change of clothes at this location of yours.” 

“Yes,” Merlin promised, fondly remembering past travels from a long time ago. 

“Excellent.”

Gwen and Elena also got up from their bed and shifted anxiously, looking towards Merlin for guidance. Sneaking a quick and questioning glance towards Gwaine, he waited until he saw a small nod of approval before taking a deep breath. 

He wondered if Arthur had felt this uncertainty and nerves before leading his men into known danger. The knowledge that not all his men would come back after they had left the safety of their camp. He had never paid that much attention at the time, too preoccupied with making sure that Arthur survived. He thought of how Arthur had stood in front of his men before battle, with his head held tall, causing Merlin’s heart to skip a beat as he drank in the image Arthur made. It hurt to think about, just like any reminder of Arthur cut him to his core and left the old wound opened and raw. 

“Let’s go then,” Merlin finally said, snapping himself back to the present with great difficulty. “I have some basic things with me, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to get to where we need to get going. If you see anyone on the streets, anyone at all, don’t approach them.” 

“But what if they need help?” Gwen asked. 

“Trust me, it’s not worth the risk,” Merlin said. 

“You’re asking us to trust you and leave innocent people to die,” Gwaine snapped in distaste. 

“No, I am asking you to trust me and not do something stupid that could kill you and everyone else in this room.” 

“He is right,” Gaius said calmly from behind Gwaine. “It will be impossible to know who is infected, we do not even know the symptoms to look for.”

“Thank you Gaius,” Merlin said. 

“Right,” Gwaine looked meaningfully at Gaius and then at the girls in front of him. Merlin could see the moment that he relented, the way Gwaine’s shoulders straightened out with purpose, the same way he used to straighten up when he had a quest to fulfill. 

They left behind the empty dormitory. Merlin went first, reaching out with his magic to make sure their way was clear. Gwen and Elena clung together closely behind him, with Gaius and Gwaine taking up the rear. 

The university grounds were eerily quiet as the group begun their trek across the city. The only sound was the happy chirps of far off birds, completely out of sync with the overpowering sense of wrong that clung to the air. Even without magic, he could tell it was affecting the other members of their group, seeped into their bones and made them feel cold and empty despite the warm spring sun beating down on them. 

They had not even made it to the library when Gwaine stopped, forcing the group to come to a halt. He stood, staring at the medical building, looking a bit non-pulsed by something. 

“Odd,” Gwaine muttered. “Do you think the military is trying to do a rescue mission?” 

“Why do you think that?” Merlin asked. 

“It’s just ... there used to be a blockade in front of that building,” Gwaine pointed at the now open doors. “Now there isn’t one.”

“Is it possible?” Gwen asked, grabbing Merlin’s arm. “Could help be on it’s way?” 

“No,” Merlin said, quickly scanning the surrounding area. There it was, stumbling towards them, silent and deadly, its face a grotesque mask of decaying flesh. What once used to be a young woman, probably a student with a future ahead of her, was now a walking corpse. “Fuck. Run!” 

“What?” Gwaine asked, turning around to see what Merlin was looking at. Merlin was not waiting though, grabbing Gwen’s hand he started running. He knew the evacuation had not worked. The city would be crawling with the infected. Clutching tighter onto Gwen’s hand he could hear the pounding of the others feet against the pavement. 

He did not stop running to check on everyone until they were a good two blocks from the campus. As he slowed to a brisk walk, Elena bent over, grabbing her stomach. 

“You okay?” Gwaine asked, lightly patting her back as he kept her moving forward. 

“What was that thing?” Elena asked, clutching Gwaine’s shirt as they tried to keep up with the group. Merlin could tell Gwen was also tiring, her breathes coming out in small puffs. Gaius seemed to be in intense pain as he hobbled beside them, his older bones not used to the physical demand. 

“One of the infected,” Merlin said grimly.

“It looked like a fucking zombie,” Gwaine said. 

“I guess that’s one way to put it,” Merlin admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “Zombie, infected, cursed ... which ever one tickles your fancy.”

“Are you serious?” Gwaine asked. “You’re seriously saying we’re, what? In some sort of zombie apocalypse?”

“If that’s the best way for you to understand it than yes,” Merlin snapped. 

“How would you put it?” Gwen asked, still clutching at his hand, never once breaking pace from him. 

“I would just call it the apocalypse.”

“That’s not exactly comforting mate,” Gwaine pointed out. 

“It wasn’t supposed to be,” Merlin said. “I just ...”

As they turned the corner all words dried in his throat. Berating himself internally at being too busy talking to check the path ahead, they now stood in front of a deadly swarm of the infected. 

At least several dozen infected stood before them. It was too late to slip away, the crowd had already caught their scent and stumbled and hurried their way towards them. Their limbs moving as if puppets on a string, uncoordinated and unnatural. The stench of their decaying bodies hitting Merlin even as he felt the bottom of his stomach drop. 

Together the group bolted in the opposite direction. Merlin tried to look ahead with his magic, and he could see several smaller clusters laying ahead of them. The running and weakening of his legs made it difficult to see much though. Their only chance of survival was to get off the streets. 

He tried to think of his years in the city as a student all those decades ago. He knew several tunnels that could get them across the city safely, but none were close by. He knew of several older buildings that had been smuggling dens for all sorts of vices over the years. Many of them had secret rooms and chambers. One in particular had a small tunnel that connected two buildings just a few blocks apart from each other. John and Merlin had used that tunnel numerous times back in the 1930s. It was only a few streets away. 

“Down here,” Merlin yelled, sprinting left through a narrow alleyway. A brief glance behind him and he felt his heart drop when he noticed how far behind Gaius and Gwaine were. “Just a few blocks!”

“Where,” Gwen gasped, her pace slipping so that Merlin was pulling at her hand forcing her into a stumbling run. “Where’re we going?”

“The Bull’s Head.”

“What?” 

He could see the abandoned facade. Decades ago it had been run-down, with grimy windows covered in soot from the smokers inside, the walls stained, ceilings low and a certain clientele which kept the unwanted out of the establishment. Merlin had been a regular. Nowadays it was run down to the extent that the sketchy Bull’s Head bar would have looked like a high-end VIP club in comparison. The windows now boarded up and locked down. Graffiti of different names were artfully done along the sides. 

“In here!” Merlin yelled, reaching out with his magic to pick the lock and open the front doors for them. He felt a small moment of victory as the chains fell before a horrible yell of pain pierced the air. 

Turning around, he watched in horror as Gaius yelled out as an infected ripped the flesh from his shoulder with its teeth. Gwaine was right beside Gaius and Merlin watched him running to save his mentor, and knew he had to stop him somehow. 

Barely thinking, Merlin used his magic to push Gwaine forward, away from Gaius and towards them. Crumpling onto the ground upon impact, Gwaine quickly tried to jump to his feet, to rush forward once more. 

“No!” Merlin yelled. Already they were attracting too much attention, the infected had not let go of Gaius yet, and was gnawing on his arm even as the older man tried to get away. Others were approaching though, at least twenty attracted by the yells. 

“Gaius!” Gwaine yelled. 

Merlin knew that Gwaine would not be reasoned with, could already see Elena starting to dart towards Gwaine to help him. Could feel Gwen’s need to jump in and help, only stilled by his iron grip on her hand. 

But Gaius was already dead. He had died as soon as his flesh had been ripped. 

And there was no power on this earth that would stop Merlin from saving the three people left. 

Crouching down to pick up a stone from the ground, it was easy to change it to his weapon of choice. He wondered what Arthur would say if he found out that Merlin was actually proficient with a weapon, he had always said every man had a weapon they preferred “though of course your such a girl, Merlin, that might not apply to you.” 

The echoing bang of his pistol made everyone stop. Gaius crumpled to the ground, the bullet had hit true, right in the head so that Gaius would not be turned into the abominations now stumbling towards them for a fresher prey. 

Running forward, he let go of Gwen so that he could grab the shell-shocked Gwaine and pull him into the old bar. The inside was barely recognizable. Stripped to its bones and with beams falling haphazardly in the far corner. Merlin used his magic to weld the door shut as Elena was the last to make it inside. 

Gwaine suddenly snapped to life. Grabbing Merlin by his shirt, he slammed him so hard against the door that there was a ringing in his ears and a tang of blood in his mouth. 

“You son of a bitch” Gwaine roared, slamming Merlin back once more, before he clenched his hand against Merlin’s neck cutting off his airway. “You murdering son of a bitch.”

“Stop it!” Gwen cried, rushing forward and trying to break Gwaine’s grip. “Stop!”

Letting go of his strangle hold Merlin could barely catch a breath before Gwaine picked him up and slammed him against a different wall. 

“Gwaine!” Elena yelled. 

“You murdered him!” Gwaine raged, and Merlin could see his own sorrow matched in Gwaine’s wild gaze. 

“I saved him,” Merlin croaked. “He was already dead.”

“You shot him, he was alive and you shot him,” Gwaine yelled. “You asked us to trust you and you just ...”

“I told you. As soon as they break the skin of their victim, they become infected. That’s how the sickness spreads.” Merlin said. “If I hadn’t done that, he would have burned up. A consuming fever until all he craved was our flesh and the skin flaked from his skin. And that was best case scenario. Worst case we would all be having that mob devour us whole.” 

“You can’t know that,” Gwaine said softly, slumped forward, the anger leaving him as suddenly as it had hit. 

“If I hadn’t done that we all could have died. It was mercy,” Merlin whispered. 

“Where did the gun come from?” Elena asked, suddenly piping up from over Gwaine’s shoulder. 

“Magic.”

“Don’t fucking joke about this,” Gwaine growled, tear tracks glistening on his cheek. 

“I’m not,” Merlin snapped. “Look!”

Before their eyes he let the gun morph back into the pebble from which he had made it. 

“That’s not possible,” Elena said. 

“No it’s not,” Gwen agreed, stepping forward to pluck the pebble out of Merlin’s hand. She turned it around in her fingers, as if trying to see where the gun would have folded itself down into such an odd shape. 

“We need to keep moving,” Merlin said. “This door won’t hold them off forever.”

“Are you expecting us to believe that we have Harry Potter protecting us?” Gwaine asked. 

“No, you have Merlin protecting you. Now if you all would like to live, I would highly suggest running.” Merlin said, watching as the door shook from the force of the infected trying desperately to claw their way inside. 

“But ...” Gwaine tried to stop him. This time it was Merlin who grabbed Gwaine and shoved him against the wall. Letting a millennia of experience give him the upper hand. 

“You’re in a zombie apocalypse and you’re having trouble with the fact that I have magic? That’s fine. But you need to get over it and get moving because if you fall behind you will die,” Merlin warned. 

“Are you threatening me?” Gwaine groaned. 

“No, this is a friendly public service announcement.” 

 

￼

Gwen was thankful that Merlin kept hold of her hand as they moved again. It was the only thing that kept her numb feet moving. She could barely see in front of her, the image of Professor Gaius being ripped and torn by the monsters that seemed to creep from every nook and cranny.

“Where are we going?” Gwen asked as Merlin led them into the basement, running down the stairs. 

“There’s nothing down here,” Gwaine said. 

“There’s an old tunnel. Bull’s Head was known for dealing in any contraband material of the time. This was their escape tunnel in case any authorities caught onto them.” Merlin explained. Sure enough, with a small grunt he was able to open a trap door in the floor. He paused for a moment, his eyes turning golden, before smiling and nodding to himself. 

“How do you know this?” Elena asked. 

“It was a popular establishment in the eighteenth-century and again the 1920s. I was a frequent visitor,” Merlin said. “In fact, I was the one to help them come up with the tunnel idea. A bit brilliant if you ask me.” 

“How old are you?” Elena asked, eyeing Merlin for any signs of wrinkles or grey hair. 

“Older than I look.” 

The tunnel was dark and cramped, forcing them to bend in half as they scurried in the black abyss. A small blue orb hovered about them, lighting the way so they did not trip on the roots showing. Gwen kept staring at the orb, trying to make sense of it. Magic, zombies ... the impossible seemed to be taking over their lives within the course of a day, and Gwen found she much preferred her life before all of it. 

The end of the tunnel led to another building, equally as run down as the first and condemned. She wondered what Merlin was, that he would know of these establishments and yet not have aged a day in at least ninety years. 

As they moved back onto the streets, Gwen was relieved to see they were blessedly abandoned and quiet. They moved swiftly through them, everyone’s senses on full alert, jumping at shadows. There was no one though. Gwen had a moment to wonder if they were too busy feasting on Gaius’s corpse, before she felt a wave of nausea fall over her. Barely keeping it down, Gwen tried to force her thoughts away from that. 

“Are you okay?” Elena asked Gwaine behind them. 

“I’m fine,” Gwaine said shortly and with a small look towards Gwen, Elena moved back farther away from him. 

“We’re here,” Merlin announced. Moving towards old doors of an abandoned carriage shed, the door seemed to unlock as Merlin moved towards it. With a single pull, the large doors swung open and revealed several vehicles stashed inside. 

“Okay, are you a car thief or 007?” Gwaine asked. 

“None of the above. Just been around for awhile, and once you live long enough you start to just gather a lot of things. There are weapons by the back wall, choose one in case we’re attacked. And then pick a vehicle. I’m going on Kilgarragh.” Merlin said as he started to throw the dust covered blankets off random vehicles and work tables. 

Gwen moved to the back wall and tried to still the panic that set in at the sight of different weapons, all of them seeming to be as antiquated as the hills. Who was she placing her trust in that he would have a weapon collection this massive? 

Gwaine grabbed a sword, holding it aloft and swinging it slightly from side to side. 

Merlin stopped clearing off the items, and stared at Gwaine for a moment. There was an odd wet sheen to his eyes and a paleness that took away any colour from his cheeks as he stared at Gwaine holding the sword aloft. Upon noticing Gwen watching him, he gave a weak smile and turned back around. 

Elena grabbed a bow and arrows. 

“Hunger Games fan?” Gwaine teased. 

“No, just a fan of not letting something that wants to eat me get close enough to actually take a bite,” Elena told him cheerfully, before bouncing off. Gwaine looked a bit worriedly down at his blade, and Gwen had to bite back a smile as she tried to determine what weapon she would pick. 

She saw the gun and remembered her father taking her and her brother out to the shooting range to practice. He did it to meet his ex-military buddies, but he never liked to leave the kids at home, not after her mother died. So they would go and her father would show her how to clean and put the safety on and off. 

With a shaking hand, Gwen grabbed the gun and a holster. Then, as she made to turn away, she grabbed a dagger, just in case. 

“We ready to go?” Merlin asked. 

“Aren’t you grabbing a weapon?” Gwen asked. 

“Don’t need one,” Merlin shrugged, and Gwen was not sure what to say to that, so she simply nodded and watched as he uncovered an old motorbike. A very familiar old motorbike. Looking up at Merlin, his blue eyes seemed to penetrate hers, and suddenly she was looking at them through the dirty panes of her father’s garage and those blue eyes were surrounded by wrinkles and white hair. 

“You!” Gwen gasped. “How?” 

“So you remember that do you?” Merlin asked. “I was wondering if you would piece it together.”

“Gwen, what’s happening?” Elena asked, standing behind Gwen and glaring at Merlin. 

“You were at my father’s shop. You were the old man, but ... you’re young now. You were old and weird and now you are young and kinda hot. How?” 

“Magic,” Merlin smiled, blushing slightly and looking nothing like the man capable of shooting another in the head. “Can be whatever age I wish. It’s quite simple actually.” 

“Simple, right,” Gwen said. Then she laughed as she ran a shaking hand over the motorbike. “Elyan was in love with this bike. He went on and on about it, begged Dad to buy one. He would hate to know I got a chance to touch it and he wasn’t around. When I tell him ... If I tell him ...”

“Hey,” Merlin said, stepping towards Gwen and gently grabbing her arms. “I promise you that I will get you out of here. I won’t let you down again.” 

“You haven’t let me down yet,” Gwen told him, Merlin only smiled sadly. 

“Not this time. Not yet.”

In barely any time they were flying down the streets, too fast for the infected to reach them. Gwen wrapped tightly around Merlin on the back of Kilgarragh, the old motorbike of Elyan’s dreams. Behind them in a smaller car was Gwaine and Elena. An hour later, as they passed the city limit Gwen felt she could actually breathe. But the breath came out in a shuddering sob and not bothering with discretion, she pushed her face against Merlin’s shoulder and let the tears fall.


	4. The Courts of Camelot

**_~Camelot~  
6 Days to Samhain's Eve _ **

￼

If Merlin had not been worried about Gwen yesterday when he had needed to bring her an extra set of clothing and she had acted oddly, saying her hair had been cut the night before when it had still been long that morning, and asking when Samhain's Eve was when the whole castle was abuzz with the festivities which would be in one week exactly. If none of that had raised his suspicions then the fact that this morning Gwen was being dragged in front of Arthur for stealing horses probably would have warned him that something was off.

Merlin could do little more than stand behind Arthur as the guards dragged Gwen in front of everyone. He did not need to look at Arthur to know how hard this would be. 

There was something haunted in Gwen’s eyes, as if she was not fully there in the room with them, until Arthur spoke. 

“Guinevere, you have been brought in front of the court on the charge of horse thievery,” Arthur said, not looking at Gwen, but instead somewhere over her head. “How do you plead?”

“Er, just a quick question, on a scale of one to ten, how bad would this be?” Gwen asked, shocking everyone into silence.

“What?” Arthur asked. 

“One being not bad, like putting shoes on a table or licking a spoon and then putting into the yogurt container and ten being killing a baby,” Gwen explained. “I just want to get a feel for how serious this would be.”

“I don’t ...” Arthur sent a slightly panicked look to Merlin before shaking himself back to the present. 

“Are you making a mockery of the Prince?” Agravaine asked, stepping out of the shadows. 

Gwen sent him an inquisitive glance before shaking her head. If Merlin did not know better, he would think Gwen had never seen Agravaine before, even though he had been living in Camelot for the past few months. 

“Stealing horses is a very serious offense,” Arthur said. 

“Right,” Gwen said, glancing around the room and whatever she saw must have been upsetting. “Could I request a meeting with you and your most trusted knights ... and Merlin.”

Merlin raised his eyebrows and met Gaius’ inquisitive stare, barely able to shrug his shoulders to show he had no idea what was happening. 

“Of course,” Arthur acquiesced, as if he would do anything else. 

With a grumbling among the crowd, everyone cleared out so that only Agravaine, Arthur, Merlin and Arthur’s hand chosen knights stayed behind. Gwen flinched as the people left the room. Skittish like a wild animal cornered by predators. 

Whatever Merlin had expected to happen once the room emptied, the last thing was for Gwen to rush to where Elyan stood and grab him into a tight hug. 

“Whoa, Gwen,” Elyan said, looking unsure at the other men in the room. “What’s this for?”

“I’ve just missed you,” Gwen said, actually crying and laughing at the same time. “And look at you, in armour, a knight.”

“Well, I am on duty,” Elyan reminded her. “Are you okay Gwen?”

“No, um, probably not,” Gwen said, backing away from Elyan and turning back to the rest of the group. “I didn’t plan to do it this way, but it turns out to be harder to get out of Camelot than anticipated and we don’t have a lot of time. If you and Leon are back then everyone here must be aware that Morgana and Morgause are heading to Isle of the Blessed as we speak.”

“How do you know about that?” Agravaine asked. Merlin did not like his tone. “That’s classified information.”

“The same way I know that they plan to rip the veil of life and death and unleash horrors the likes of which you have never seen,” Gwen said, and Merlin could feel his body tense. “I’m from the future.”

The grand declaration was met with silence. Only broken with Agravaine’s laughter, though Merlin was not sure what there was to laugh about. 

“Come on,” Agravaine said as he glanced at everyone’s serious face. “You cannot believe this serving girl. She has obviously been overtaxing herself, or perhaps in the sun for too long.”

“Prove it,” Arthur demanded. “Prove that you are from the future.”

“How am I supposed to do that? The future, from your perspective, has not happened yet,” Gwen asked, sounding tired and bereft. In mere moments she aged a decade. 

“I could say that yesterday I saw you kissing a man,” she said, causing Merlin’s stomach to drop and flip, as Arthur got red in the face.

“Or maybe it would suffice to say I almost walked in on Gwaine and Elena having sex a month ago and now I am scarred for live by the event,” Gwen continued, causing Gwaine to start and Merlin saw him asking Percival who Elena was. 

“I could tell you that two weeks ago I buried Elyan,” she said concluded. “Two weeks ago I buried the last of my family because of what Morgana is about to do. But until that happens, you have no proof. So how would you like me to prove myself.”

“If you are from the future,” Arthur said. “How did you get to the past.”

Merlin froze as Gwen’s eyes landed on his. Suddenly he felt as if someone was crushing his windpipe and he couldn’t breath - Gwen knew about his magic. She was telling the truth. There was no way she would know about his magic unless she was from the future, a future that knew about his magic no less. 

“I was sent,” Gwen said slowly. “I came up with the idea, but ... you won’t like knowing who sent me.”

“Obviously magic had to be used,” Agravaine said, and Merlin could throttle him to shut up. “You must tell us, unless you wish to be an accomplice.”

“You won’t harm him,” Gwen said. “Besides, the magic hasn’t happened yet.”

“Still, anyone meddling with such dangerous magic must be stopped,” Agravaine blustered. “Now tell us who sent you.”

“I was sent by King Arthur Pendragon,” Gwen said, and everyone turned to stare at the Prince. 

“I would never use such magic,” Arthur blustered. 

“You might find your view changes over time,” Gwen commented idly. 

“You are saying that Prince Arthur-” Leon began. 

“King Arthur,” Gwen interjected. 

“King Arthur, this Arthur, he used magic to bring you from the future to now ... why?” Leon asked. 

“To kill Morgana obviously,” Gwen said, so matter-of-fact that for a moment Merlin was sure he had misheard her. 

“You are going to kill Morgana?” Arthur asked. 

“It is impossible to explain the destruction she causes,” Gwen said, frowning. “But four months ago from my perspective, the world of man ended because of the curse she unleashes in one week from now. I don’t care if you believe me or not, but I just need a horse so I can go to the Isle of the Blessed and stop her. Arthur, you know yourself, would you condone the use of such an extreme magic if you, the future you, didn’t think it was the only way to stop a catastrophe? Hell, I am pretty sure we all kind of expected the spell to backlash and just kill me instead of giving me this opportunity to fix it. You must believe me.”

Arthur stared at her long and hard. Merlin was not sure what he would do.


	5. Race to Avalon

“And so I told Gwen that’s what we get for trying to make a double stacked pizza. The explosion was legendary. Cheese everywhere!” Elena finished her story and waved her hands frantically. Gwaine could barely find it in himself to chuckle slightly, unable to enjoy the full humour of the story. The weight of the city behind them was enough to dampen his spirits.

As if sensing his darkened mood, Elena, for the first time since they had crossed the city boundaries, was silent. Gwaine risked a glance over and saw her worried gaze fixed out the window in front of them. In front were Merlin and Gwen leading the way. 

“Sorry,” Gwaine said. “Not much company I’m afraid.”

“No, no ... it’s not really the time for silly stories is it?” Elena said, her voice tight and withdrawn. “I’ll just ... I’ll just shut up now.” 

“Don’t,” Gwaine said. He could not find it in himself to stop. “Silly stories make it better.” 

“No they don’t,” Elena protested. “They never do. Not really. Just distracts for a bit.” 

“Well, I could use the distraction,” Gwaine said. “If that’s okay with you.” 

“Distractions don’t fix anything.”

“No, but they can make you forget for a tiny bit.”

Elena shuffled in her seat so that she could look at Gwaine fully. He wondered what she would see; his sweat stained shirt from running, the stubble along his chin or the way his eyes itched with a tiredness that seeped into his every bone. Whatever it was that she saw, she nodded, smiled shyly at him, completely at odds with the bright, toothy grin he had seen from time to time. 

“Very well,” she said. “I would be happy to be your distraction. What would you prefer to hear about? The time I set the oven on fire twice or what happens to Gwen when I forced her to drink tequila?” 

“Anything,” Gwaine said. “Just keep talking.” 

Gwaine could feel some of his tension leave him as Elena kept talking. Her stories filling the car. 

Not even half an hour later, Merlin slowed to a stop in the middle of a crossroad. He did not bother trying to get off to the side, just stopping right along the center. Gwaine, following his lead, did the same. Elena stopped talking as they got out of the car. 

The four huddled together, and Gwaine was suddenly unsure of what to say. As far as he had heard, they were the first people to ever make it out of one of the Zones alive. It was unheard of, and despite how little he trusted the lithe dark haired man, he could not think of what to say. Was he supposed to thank the man and go on with his life, with the image of Gaius burned forever in his brain. Or did he punch him square on the nose for what he did and call it even. Merlin did not even seem aware of Gwaine’s inner turmoil, lighting up a cigarette from his backpack and inhaling deeply. 

“We got out,” Elena said, breaking the silence. 

Gwen nodded as she said a soft, “yes, thank you.”

“Suppose we did not need these,” Gwaine said, holding his sword aloft. Feeling attached to the sword, he ran one loving hand over it. It felt at home in his hand, like a forgotten brother, but the city was now behind him and it did not belong to him. He thrust it towards Merlin to take. 

“We might still need them,” Merlin said, not accepting the sword, leaning against the farmers gate and running a tired hand over his face. “It’s not done yet.” 

“What’s not done?” Gwen asked. 

“We’re out of the Zone. We have nothing to protect ourselves from anymore,” Elena said. 

“But we’re not out of the Zone,” Merlin said, and Gwaine felt the bottom of his stomach drop. Suddenly the hair on the back of his neck was raised and an eerie awareness of how out in the open they were. His eyes traced the top of each hill and clump of trees with a deep wariness. 

“What do you mean that we are not out of the Zone?” Gwaine asked. “How big is this Zone?” 

“As big as it can be,” Merlin replied. “There are no Zones anymore.” 

“That’s impossible,” Elena argued. “We just came from a Zone.”

“It has finally grown to swallow the world whole. There is nowhere that is safe anymore,” Merlin said. 

“And we’re just supposed to trust you on that? You? Who would shoot us in the head than try to help?” Gwaine asked. 

“I told you that was mercy,” Merlin snapped, flicking the butt of his cigarette against the pavement of the road. 

“I know. But it was a bit too clean and neat for me. So tell me Merlin, how many times have you pulled that trigger? How many dead men are on your conscious?” Gwaine asked, and before he knew it an invisible force knocked him clean off his feet and he slammed against the farmers gate. 

“Merlin no!” Gwen cried. 

“Leave him alone,” Elena begged, but Merlin had a crazed look in his eyes. A gleam that Gwaine had never seen and suddenly he was very, very afraid of the man in front of him. Merlin walked to him. The force, the magic, pressed against him so that it was impossible to move. 

“You have no idea what I have been through,” he whispered and Gwaine had no choice but to listen. “I have seen things you would not believe and I have done things that I am not proud of. That doesn’t mean you have any right to judge, when everything I have ever done was to protect.”

“Is that why I am pinned to a gate? For protection?” Gwaine asked. “Cause, no offense Harry Potter, but I am feeling a bit hard to trust when you aren’t even giving me the freedom of my limbs.” 

“Merlin,” Gwen said gently, as if speaking to a spooked horse. “Let him go. If what you say is true, than we can’t afford to be fighting each other.” 

A vulnerable look passed over Merlin’s face as he stepped back and Gwaine was released from his hold. Merlin looked so hurt and lost that Gwaine felt wrong-footed. He turned away rather than have to deal with it. 

“How can you know that the illness has spread around the world?” Elena asked. “How did you even know the evacuation had failed? Are you ... psychic as well as magical?” 

“No, I ... I try very hard to not see the future. No good ever comes from knowing of things yet to come. But my magic is ... tuned in, I guess you could say, with the Earth. When the illness hits I feel it, makes me violently ill, and I just ... know. I can feel all those people snatched from this plane and I just know,” Merlin explained. “Right before this one hit I was ill for three days and I knew it was the end.”

“So the night we met, when you were ill on the street,” Gwaine said, feeling himself drawn into the conversation. “The next morning a new part of London had been quarantined.” 

Merlin just nodded. 

“So what is the plan?” Gwen asked. 

“What plan?” Elena asked Gwen, glancing back at Gwaine as if seeing if he had been aware of a plan. He merely shrugged his own confusion. 

“Come on, he gave us weapons and said we would need them. He could have left us in the quarantine. We were in a crowd of thousands and yet he saved the two of us. He told us to not trust anyone and not to help anyone, and yet he let Gwaine and ... Gaius ... join our group. Hell, he could have left us behind when we were running from the infected, but he didn’t, he let us slow him down,” Gwen said, and Gwaine watched as Merlin fidgeted against the stares of all three of them. “So what is the plan? And why us?”

“Because I know you three,” Merlin said. “And I couldn’t let you down again.” 

“No,” Gwaine said. “None of this mysterious bullshit. You can’t go all cloak and dagger and expect us to follow you blindly to our deaths. So answer the girls questions.” 

“I already did,” Merlin said, looking as skittish as a colt. 

“How could you possibly know us? Not sure about the ladies, but I know besides the one occasion I almost had the pleasure of you being sick on my shoes, we sure as hell haven’t met before and certainly haven’t let me down.”

“It was a long time ago,” Merlin hedged. 

“Still not quite cutting it,” Gwaine said. 

“Fine! You would like to know the truth,” Merlin said. “The truth is I am an immortal wizard from the courts of Camelot and you are all my friends reincarnated from that time.”

“Is this a joke to you?” Gwaine asked. 

“Does it look like I am joking?” Merlin retorted. The way he stood, arms just dangling to the side. The wide-eyes and open face, nothing sheltered and there was such an open fondness that Gwaine felt uncomfortable. 

“Camelot?” Gwen asked. “Who do you think we are? I mean, you don’t mean, you couldn’t mean, it’s not as if you think I’m Queen Guinevere or something ridiculous, do you?”

“No, I am saying you were Queen Guinevere many life times ago,” Merlin said. “And Gwaine was Sir Gwaine, one of Arthur’s trusted knights of the round table and Elena was the Queen of one of our neighbouring kingdoms.” 

“Um, I don’t even remember an Elena as part of the Arthurian legend at all,” Elena muttered. 

“You are off your rocker mate,” Gwaine said. “I mean, granted, you have magic, but Camelot?”

“You asked for the truth,” Merlin reminded him. 

“Okay, so the truth is that we are reincarnated friends of yours from Camelot and there just so happens to be a zombie apocalypse happening?” Gwaine asked. “I think I might need a drink.”

“I have whiskey in my backpack,” Merlin offered. “Once we find a place to sleep for the night, it is all yours.”

“I will hold that to you.” 

“And the plan?” Gwen asked. 

“How are you sure that I have a plan?” Merlin said. 

“Because usually the types of people to know secret tunnels and have hidden storage sheds stashed in cities are the type of people to have plans,” Gwen pointed out.

“Touché,” Merlin replied. “We’re heading to the Lake of Avalon. I have an old friend there who would be able to help.”

 

￼

  


 

Their protection that night was a farm house. The family was gone and the cupboards and closets looked as if they had left in a hurry. Things left half open, furniture overturned. The small, low stone structure lay not too far from the city, only four hours away from where Gwen had grown up. Merlin had been on this road so many times before that he knew every bump and dip in it. It would be nothing to keep going, but the others were tired and with the skies darkening into night, it would not be safe to try and push onwards. Merlin quickly put up the barriers and then offered to collect wood for the wood stove. 

“Need some help?” Gwen asked. 

“Sure,” Merlin said. Not being able to think of anything to say to deter her and, in that moment, if he was being honest with himself, he did not want to be alone. 

The farmer had a large pile of wood beside one of his barns. Inside they could hear the animals moving. Merlin used the moment of silence to take another cigarette. 

“So, do you really think I’m some long dead Queen?” Gwen asked. “Cause you don’t seem crazy. Or, I mean, not that I think you’re crazy for believing in reincarnation, lot’s of people do.” 

“Gwen, it’s okay,” Merlin said, smiling softly as he stopped her rambling. “I know it’s a lot to take in. To be honest it’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to say anything to any of you.” 

“Well, I am happy you did,” Gwen said. “You saved us. We would not be here without you. You’re a real hero Merlin.” 

“Don’t say that,” Merlin begged. “I’m no hero.”

“Too bad. You can’t decide how people think of you, and I think of you as a hero. So I guess you’ll just have to live with that,” Gwen teased, bumping his arm with her elbow gently. 

“You always were the kindest person I ever knew,” Merlin said. 

“Was I a good Queen?” Gwen asked. 

“The best,” Merlin promised and she smiled at him sweetly as she gathered more wood.

“You shouldn’t smoke you know, it could kill you,” Gwen lectured. 

“What part of immortal wizard did you miss? I’ve been smoking for hundreds of years and we’re in the midst of an apocalypse, I couldn’t be half-assed to try quitting now,” Merlin said, making Gwen chuckle and shake her head. It was nice, he realised, to have this again. To be able to talk to Gwen and be with her, and they might both be different then when they were kids trying to find their place in Camelot, but it was close enough. 

“I can’t believe they would have left their livestock behind,” Gwen said. “We should let them go free. They will starve to death if we keep them locked in that barn.” 

Nodding his consent, they moved towards the barn doors and opened them wide. A horrid smell hit their noses and the sounds of hundreds of flies filled the air. Choking on the horrid smell, the sight that greeted them was that of a mutilated carcass. Merlin supposed it had been a horse at one time, but its body had been torn, half ate and parts were strewn over the hay. 

Merlin barely noticed Gwen fold over, being sick by the side of the door. Taking a step towards the carcass, he tried to see where the other animals were, but all the stalls were empty except for the mutilated corpses of whatever livestock the farming family had at one time owned. 

With a cold sense of dread, Merlin realised there was nothing alive in this barn. 

“Merlin!” Gwen cried out. Spinning on his heel, he was barely two feet away from the old owners of the farm. A man and woman at one point, but no longer as they reached for him. Snarling and mad like rabid dogs. 

Backing up quickly, there was no time to reach for a weapon or think of a spell as one grabbed him. 

Two bangs echoed in quick succession. Merlin watched as matching holes appeared in both of the infected’s heads. As they both crumpled to the ground, he turned around and saw Gwen shaking by the barn door, gun still raised in her hand. 

“Gwen!” Merlin heard Elena cry out. “Gwen?”

“We’re here,” he called back when it looked like Gwen was immobile with shock. 

Gwaine and Elena burst around the corner, Gwaine with his sword and Elena armed with a frying pan. 

“Oh thank god,” Elena said, wrapping her arms around Gwen and holding her close. “We heard two shots and we weren’t sure what happened. What happened?” 

“They were going to kill him so I shot them,” Gwen whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “I had to.”

“What-” Elena stopped when her eyes fell onto the two dead corpses at Merlin’s feet. “Were they infected?”

“Of course they were infected,” Gwen said harshly. “I would never ...”

“No, of course not,” Elena said, as Gwen started to cry in earnest. “I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s okay,” Merlin said, coming over to run a soothing hand down Gwen’s arm. “I guess you’re the hero now.”

“Don’t feel like much of a hero,” Gwen said, laughing shakily. 

“In my experience, heroes never do,” Merlin said. 

“Come inside, I’ll make everyone some tea,” Elena said, helping Gwen put the gun back into her holster and leading her back towards the house. 

“Think this is more of a whiskey kind of night myself,” Gwaine called out to their retreating backs. 

Merlin looked at the two corpses and sighed. Grabbing on of the nearest shovels he went out to start digging their graves. He didn’t say anything when Gwaine joined him. 

Halfway down their first grave and Merlin was coated in a fine layer of sweat and his muscles ached. He had forgotten how hard it was to dig graves. 

“Are you okay?” Gwaine asked, suddenly, breaking their silence. 

“Fine,” Merlin replied. 

“You sure?” Gwaine pressed. 

“I thought you didn’t like me,” Merlin reminded him. “Why do you care?”

“Because I might not fully trust you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you,” Gwaine said. “As much as I have a hard time getting over what happened to him, I know you did it to save me, save the girls, and I can’t really hold you guilty of that now can I.”

“You could,” Merlin said. “It would just make you an ass.”

Laughing Gwaine shook his head and got back to digging. The laughter died slowly as they continued to dig. 

“What made you decide to be a professor?” Merlin asked suddenly, dying to know. So far this Gwaine did not seem all that different than the one Merlin had first known all those years ago. Still fiercely loyal, still always challenging any authority, and still ready for a fight. However, as he met those familiar yet distant eyes, he was achingly aware of how this Gwaine did not see Merlin as his only friend. “Sorry, I shouldn’t ask.”

“No, it’s okay,” Gwaine said, staring at Merlin intensely. “I made you spill all your secrets, guess it’s only fair for turn around.”

“I would never force you,” Merlin tried to back track, not eager to lose what little beginnings of friendship they had. 

“It was Gaius,” Gwaine said. “He was the one. He saw something in me that no one else did and he mentored me into achieving more than I ever thought possible. All the other professors, they would try to change what I wanted to study or be pretentious douche bags about it, but every time I wanted to give up Gaius would come in, do his eyebrow of doom thing and just keep me on track.” 

“He was a good man,” Merlin said, feeling the sting of tears beneath his eyes. “He was always a good man.”

“You think he was also reincarnated?” Gwaine asked. “I don’t remember a Gaius in the Arthurian legends.”

“The legends are mostly wrong, and they forgot a lot of very ... important people. Camelot would have fallen a few times over if it had not been for Gaius. He was the physician, and a very good man,” Merlin said. 

“He would have loved that, being a part of those legends. Of course, he would also think you were insane,” Gwaine said. 

“And you don’t?” Merlin asked. 

“Nah, I think you are right off your rocker, but who doesn’t want to be a knight of the roundtable,” Gwaine said, smirking down at Merlin and making him laugh. “I was the best one, wasn’t I? Come on, you can admit it, the most handsome and the most skilled, I bet the ladies loved me.” 

“Well, it’s nice to see you managed to reincarnate your ego with you,” Merlin teased. Looking at Gwaine as he threw his head back and laughed, it was so easy to forget that over a thousand years had passed since he last made Gwaine laugh like that. 

“So this friend who can help us,” Gwaine said, getting back to shoveling. “This person also from the legends?”

“Yes,” Merlin grunted. 

“Anyone I have heard of?” Gwaine asked. 

“Yes.”

“Want to give me any clues?” Gwaine asked. “Is it an immortal thing that you can never give a straight answer, or were you always this filled with riddles?”

“Guess it comes with age,” Merlin said, thinking of Kilgarragh’s frustratingly obtuse answers and feeling a bittersweet sense of kinship with the old dragon. “But, you’ve studied the legends. You know who is waiting at the Lake of Avalon.”

“You mean Arthur,” Gwaine said. “The once and future King? The one to return at the nation’s greatest hour of need?” 

“I would say that the hour of need is pretty high right now, wouldn’t you say?” Merlin asked rhetorically. 

“You’re insane,” Gwaine said, looking at Merlin with a hint of admiration. “You’re bloody well insane, but there’s just something about you my friend. I will love you forever if I can get Arthur’s autograph.”

“I don’t think he’ll understand that reference,” Merlin laughed, and despite how dark it was and how dangerous the world had become, Merlin could not remember the last time he had felt this good in a long time. 

 

￼

Gwen and Elena were curled together in one of the bedrooms. Gwaine and Merlin had come in, dirty and happier it seemed, though how digging graves could make someone happier, Gwen did not want to know. They had dined on macaroni and cheese, convinced Merlin to smoke outside, and cleaned up.

Now, in the warm cocoon of the blankets, Elena grabbed her hand. 

“Are you okay?” she whispered and Gwen shook her head, unable to vocalize just how not alright she was feeling. 

“You saved him. You saved us. It’s alright to be shaken by that,” Elena said softly. 

Gwen nodded shakily feeling horrible that it wasn’t the shooting that made her so upset in that instant. Swallowing thickly, Gwen gathered her courage to voice the very thing she was terrified of saying aloud. 

“Do you think,” Gwen started, “that my dad and Elyan are alright?” 

Elena stilled, and her eyes glistened in the dark night. A soft beam of moonlight was the only thing illuminating the room. 

“I don’t know,” Elena whispered. 

“This couple, they lived in the middle of nowhere, and I ... I thought that whatever was happening, it could not possibly reach my family. I was so sure they would be safe and now ...” Gwen choked on the words, and brought a shaking hand to her lips to silent herself. 

“Don’t borrow trouble,” Elena cautioned. “You don’t know if the illness has reached them or not.”

“I’m scared to go home,” Gwen admitted. “I don’t know if I could survive if anything happened to them.” 

“Hey, hey,” Elena whispered, bringing Gwen into a tight hug. “I won’t let anything happen to you. No matter what, you’ve got me, and Gwaine, and Merlin. Just try and get some sleep.” 

Nodding, Gwen tried to find some sleep, but none would come that night. A few moments of sleep would be disturbed by fitful dreams of Elyan and her father infected, trying to claw and eat her flesh. She would wake in fits and Elena would calm her down enough to sleep. The few times that sleep would be blessedly quiet she would be wakened by Elena crying out in her sleep. 

By the time the sun was rising, Gwen had never felt more tired in her life. Looking at Elena, staring up at the ceiling with dark circles under her eyes, she knew that none of them would be getting more sleep. Silently, they got up, dressed and made their way down into the kitchen. 

“Is that coffee I smell?” Gwaine asked, as he appeared down in the kitchen. His long locks sticking on end as he entered the room. By far it was the worst case of bed hair that Gwen had ever seen, and one quick glance at Elena had them both ducking their heads and hiding their giggles. 

“Right here,” Elena said, bouncing over to Gwaine with a steaming mug of coffee, splashing some as she went. 

Plucking it from her grip before she could spill any on him, Gwaine took a long sip and moaned appreciatively. 

“You are the most amazing woman on this planet,” Gwaine said, winking at Elena and causing her to blush a deep red. 

“Please, I bet you say that to all the women who bring you coffee,” Elena said, slapping him playfully on the arm. 

“And to the women who bring him ale,” Merlin teased. 

“Oi, come on now,” Gwaine protested. “That might be true, but none were as gorgeous as you.”

“Well, now I know your full of it,” Elena laughed. 

“I mean it,” Gwaine said. 

“How did you sleep?” Merlin asked Gwen. 

“Not well,” Gwen admitted. “Probably as well as can be expected.”

Merlin nodded, pausing and Gwen could see him examining her from the corner of her eye. 

“I wish there was a way I could make this easier for you,” Merlin said, placing one hand on his arm. Gwen did not want to talk about it, did not want to even think about it anymore. Before Merlin had a chance to continue, she switched the subject. 

“Where is the Lake of Avalon?” Gwen asked. “You hear it in myths and legends, but where is it really located?” 

“Not far from here,” Merlin said slowly. “I ... you actually know it very well.”

“I do?” Gwen asked and then she thought of it, the lake just beyond the hill, the one that haunted her family. She remembered being little and climbing the tallest trees to catch the glimpse of blue water. How she would help Elyan climb up with her and how they dared only to get that close. “No.”

Shaking her head, she felt a thrill of panic hit her. 

“You can’t mean Hog’s Bay? The lake just beyond the hill, on the way into town,” Gwen said, quietly so as not to raise the attention of Elena or Gwaine. 

“Are you okay?” Merlin asked, taking aback by the force of Gwen’s panic. 

“Tell me that is not the lake you mean,” Gwen begged. “Please.”

“That is the lake,” Merlin said slowly. “Gwen, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Gwen lied. “I just ... I should make breakfast.”

Turning her back, she determinedly beat eggs and scrambled them, ignoring Merlin’s questioning gaze. 

 

￼

  


 

Four hours later saw them approaching the lake swiftly. Gwen clung to Merlin’s back on the motorbike, once again leading the way. Elena and Gwaine following behind them. Once or twice they would see an infected on the road, but they didn’t stop. There was a sense of urgency to get to the lake. 

However there was one stop first. Entering into the lane of Tom’s garage, everyone was filled with dread for what they might find. Last night was still too recent in their minds to be too hopeful that Gwen’s family would be alright. Merlin felt the added dread of having to face the same people die twice. He remembered all too clearly the injustice of Tom’s and Elyan’s death the first time around, and the last thing he wanted was for it to already be too late. 

Stopping the vehicles and cutting off the engines, it was deathly quiet. 

No one dared to speak as they walked up to the door. Weapons at the ready, they inched forward, keeping an eye out for any movement. 

The cocking of a gun was deafening. 

“Who’s there?” Elyan called out, coming out the main door. 

“Elyan!” Gwen cried, dropping her weapon and running forward. 

Merlin could feel the tension leaving the group as everyone watched the siblings embrace each other. Merlin’s smile froze though, at the sight of blood on Elyan’s t-shirt. A quick glance at Gwaine confirmed that he had also seen what Merlin had. Gwaine raised his sword once more. 

Merlin gently pried Gwen away from her brother. She looked confused until Gwaine had the sword pointed at Elyan’s throat, and then she fought against Merlin’s hold. 

“What are you doing?” Gwen yelled. 

“We just need to check where that blood came from,” Merlin said. “We need to check he’s not infected.”

“What blood?” Gwen asked, before she noticed the dried blood on the shirt and stopped struggling to get away. 

“Infected?” Elyan said. “Do you see me grunting and feeding on your flesh?”

“Merlin here says any rip of skin and a fever takes the victim,” Gwaine said. “You could be newly infected, maybe you just haven’t turned yet.”

“As long as you aren’t wounded by one of the infected, than we’ll put the weapons away,” Merlin promised. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt here.”

“This blood isn’t mine,” Elyan said. “It’s ... I ... I am so sorry Gwen.”

“Sorry?” Gwen gasped, and Merlin felt a deep sense of dread as Elyan broke into tears. He was still younger than Merlin had ever known him, maybe seventeen or eighteen. 

“I was in town and there was all this confusion and soldiers came in, but there weren’t enough. The graveyard, I couldn’t believe it, but the dead were walking and the soldiers started shooting, and they didn’t care if the people were dead or not. I just ran,” Elyan said, and Merlin could see how it haunted him. 

“Where’s dad?” Gwen asked and Elyan just shook his head. Gwen slumped as a dead weight in his arms. “Elyan, please tell me he’s okay. Please.”

“I don’t know how he became infected, but I got home and he came after me. I had to Gwen, please, I had to,” Elyan cried in earnest, reaching for his sister. Merlin let Elyan hold Gwen close and stepped back. Turning his back from where the siblings clutched each other, he saw Gwaine hugging Elena close. Feeling bereft of what to do, Merlin stood awkwardly. 

“I’ve got you now. I have you.” Gwen muttered, over and over again. 

“We should continue on,” Merlin said, feeling horrible to intrude, but unwilling to stop now that they were so close to Arthur. 

“Elyan, this is Gwaine and Merlin,” Gwen said, taking a step back and struggling to stay composed. “They helped us get out of the city.”

However, his admission and the past few days seemed to have weakened Elyan and he could do little more than nod in their direction. Elena ran over and gave him a hug that looked painfully tight. 

“Where’re we heading?” Elyan asked. 

“We’re going to the lake,” Gwen whispered, and Elyan looked at her sharply but held his tongue against whatever it was that he was going to say. 

“I’ll come,” Elyan said. “I can’t stay here alone for another minute and it’s not even ten minutes away.”

“Are you sure?” Gwen asked. 

“You always promised you would take me to the lake,” Elyan reminded her. 

“If you would like, you can ride with me. Your sister says that you always loved my bike,” Merlin offered, knowing it was a small comfort after all Elyan had suffered, but any ray of happiness would mean the world to him right now. Sure enough, he could see the way Elyan’s eyes lit up when they fell onto Kilgarragh, his motorbike. 

“No way,” Elyan whispered. “I’ve only ever seen one like this once, years ago, and it was owned by a creepy old man.”

“Creepy?” Merlin laughed, and now that he thought about it, perhaps the huge beard was a bit too much, especially for modern times. 

“You would let me drive on this with you?” Elyan asked. 

“Like you said, we’re not even ten minutes away,” Merlin said. “Maybe I will even let you drive on the way back.”

 

￼

Gwen was staring morosely out the window, and Elena kept fidgeting in the front seat, with Gwaine driving silently beside her. Despite how awkward the silence was, she was happy that she had a moment where she did not need to pretend to be okay. She didn’t know what to think or feel. Despite what Elyan had said it didn’t seem real. She could understand that she would not be able to see her father ever again, but she didn’t feel it. She was scared to feel it.

“Seems like we’re here,” Gwaine said, finally breaking the silence as they watched Merlin and Elyan turn off the rode and stop. Gwen climbed out of the car and went to stand beside Elyan. The water was so still it looked like glass. 

“Are you alright?” Elyan asked. 

“I will be,” Gwen promised.

Everyone watched as Merlin stepped towards the lakeshore so that his toes almost touched the water. His eyes were a golden fire, and if anyone had been doubting Merlin’s claim to being an immortal wizard, Gwen would think they would not be able to doubt the claim now as the wind swirled around him and ancient words fell like thunder from his lips. 

Gwen could feel it build and build, and then it broke. Merlin’s eyes returned to normal, the wind died and the lake was once again a glass surface reflecting the sky above. 

There was a moment of silence. No one dared to even breathe. 

“You promised,” Merlin shouted and Gwen was not sure who he was shouting to. “You promised he would return one day!” 

“Merlin,” Gwen called out, trying to reach him, but he stepped past her, into the lake itself. 

“We should get back,” Gwaine cautioned, and she knew he could feel what she did. How Merlin’s magic seemed to be lashing out. The four of them went to stand behind the car, as a storm cloud started to block out a perfectly sunny sky. 

“What’s happening?” Elyan asked. He looked slightly terrified as debris circled them in a wind tunnel that had appeared out of nowhere. 

“Long story short, we’re the reincarnated knights and Queens of Camelot and Merlin is actually Merlin from the stories and he was hoping a zombie apocalypse would be the time of need that the stories spoke of and that Arthur would return,” Gwaine said. 

“Gwen?” Elyan turned to her, unsure if Gwaine was joking or not. 

She could do little more than offer a weak shrug of her shoulders. 

They did not dare come out from behind the car until the winds calmed and the storm passed. When they finally emerged, Merlin kneeled on the edge of the water, soaked through and gazing dully out over the water. 

“We should make sure this noise did not attract any of the infected,” Gwaine said. “We should check the perimeter.”

“Right,” Elyan nodded. 

“I will stay with him,” Gwen offered. “One could walk up right behind him and bite him before he even noticed.”

As the three walked off, Gwen approached Merlin slowly. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“You didn’t frighten us,” Gwen said, sitting down beside him. 

“Is that why you hid behind the car? Because I didn’t frighten you?” Merlin asked, sounding bitter and tired. 

“No, we were being practical,” Gwen replied. 

“I’ve been a fool,” Merlin whispered. “Thousand years older and still a fool.”

“Don’t say that,” Gwen reprimanded. 

“How old do you have to be to stop believing in fairytales?” Merlin asked. “I have waited all these years and all on the words of a dragon long dead. What sort of fool continues to have hope even after watching illness and wars pass and still nothing. He’s never coming back.”

“You don’t know that,” Gwen said. “Perhaps he is on a different part of the shore. We can check.”

“He’s not,” Merlin choked on the words. “I have checked and he is not anywhere. There has been nothing magical in this lake for centuries and still I keep deluding myself.”

“That’s not true,” Gwen whispered. “Things have happened in this lake.”

“I think I would have heard,” Merlin said. “I always kept an ear out for anything unusual. Anything just a little off, and I kept running back every time I heard so much as a peep.” 

“My mother drowned in this lake,” Gwen said, causing Merlin to finally look at her. 

“I’m sorry,” Merlin muttered. 

“We were driving back from my Grandparents, day after Christmas. My dad was driving, Mom in the passenger seat and Elyan and I in the back. We were so little, I barely remember it. Elyan was a baby, I was four. I don’t know if we hit ice or if there was an animal on the road, but suddenly we were in the water. It takes a few moments before there is actually water in the car, after it crashes into the water. Don’t remember much, but I remember that. My mom was unconscious, and Dad was trying to undo her seat belt, water started pouring in and I remember Elyan’s cries. I unbuckled him out of his car seat and gave him to Dad. My seat belt was caught. Something went wrong and it got jammed. Dad told me he would be right back, that he loved me, and he opened his window, water flooded in and he was gone. 

“I know he laid Elyan on the ground and dove back in to try and get mom and I, but the car had sunk too far down and he couldn’t reach us,” Gwen said. 

“How did you get out?” Merlin asked. 

“An angel. That’s what I told my Dad, when he finally gave up he found me unconscious beside Elyan on the shore. The memory is foggy, but I remember being surrounded by water and unable to breathe, how my lungs felt as if they were on fire, and then this light, this bluish light, and a golden haired angel reaching for me. And I remember how it said my name, my full name, Guinevere, and I felt so safe,” Gwen recalled, feeling a single tear fall down her face, swiping it away, she gave Merlin a watery smile. 

“I don’t know if that’s your Arthur, but there is that,” Gwen said. “No one in the family has been back to the lake since that day. I don’t think my father could stand the reminder. Always drove the long way into town to avoid even seeing the lake.” 

Merlin bent forward and cradled his head in his hands. Gwen gently rubbed his shoulders. 

“We’ll go back to Dad’s ... we’ll go back home. And we’ll keep coming back. Every day,”  
Gwen promised, gathering Merlin into her arms and hugging him tight. “I know it’s hard to wait for people we love.”

“I’ve waited over a thousand years,” Merlin said thickly. 

“So don’t lose faith now,” Gwen said. 

“I won’t,” Merlin said and Gwen pressed her lips to his forehead, trying to offer as much comfort as she could. 

Helping him to his feet, they started for the cars. 

“Arthur’s a lucky man,” Gwen commented. “To have you waiting for him all this time.”

“He always inspired loyalty,” Merlin muttered. 

“No, I mean, to have someone who loves you that much,” Gwen explained. “The legends seemed to have forgotten that part.”

“We weren’t, it wasn’t like that,” Merlin protested, blushing a deep red. 

“Oh,” Gwen stammered. “I’m so sorry. I just assumed. The way you talk about him.”

“No, it wasn’t ... I didn’t ... he was married,” Merlin said. “It was a different time.”

“He was married to me,” Gwen said, remembering who Merlin thought she was. “But he isn’t anymore and like you said, it’s a different time. What if-”

“No,” Merlin interrupted. “What ifs can kill a man or drive them insane.”

“Did I know? The past me?” Gwen asked, curious about this other life she had apparently lived, where she married a man in love with a warlock, or at least who had a warlock in love with him. For all Gwen knew maybe it was completely one-sided. 

“I don’t know, we never talked about it,” Merlin muttered. 

Any further questions died on her lips as she saw the three others running towards them. 

“Three just on the other side of the lake,” Gwaine called out. “They seem to be making their way over here. I would highly suggest we get to some safety before they join us.”

“Right,” Merlin said, and Gwen could see him pulling himself together, re-erecting the barriers. 

“Our place,” Elyan said. “We have a good view of the surrounding area. Up the hill and down the lane way.”

“Right,” Merlin said, absently nodding. 

Feeling anxious to leave the area as fast as they could, no one spoke as they once again started their journey back to Gwen’s old home. She was not looking forward to entering the house. It seemed as if it would make it too real that her father was gone. And if she felt Merlin hesitate, briefly looking back at the still waters, she didn’t say anything, just clung to him tight as he kick started the motorbike.


	6. Medical Examinations

**_~Camelot~  
6 Days until Samhain's Eve_ **

￼

In retrospect, telling people she was from the future had probably not been the smartest move. However, Camelot was a bit more of a police state than she had anticipated, with strict curfews and patrols on the street. Even if it had not been, Gwen has always been horrible in history class and the basic mechanics of everyday life were beyond her grasp. Horse riding for one example. She was not sure what she had been thinking. She had had the opportunity to pet a horse a couple of times in her life, but that was the extent of her experience riding.

Perhaps being checked for signs of madness with Gaius was the best she could hope for. Either way, Gwen found herself being poked and prodded on a hard wooden bench. 

“I’m not ill,” Gwen told him gently. It was difficult to look at the older man without seeing him being shot in the head, and she kept her eyes averted so as to avoid that nightmarish remembrance. “Will Merlin be back soon?” 

“He is attending the Prince right now,” Gaius said, mixing together some sort of smelly herbs that Gwen desperately hoped stayed far away from her. “But he should be back momentarily.”

“Good. I need to speak with him,” Gwen sighed. 

“What about?” Gaius inquired. 

“He’s Merlin,” Gwen said, unable to explain how much she needed him right now. The man who had saved her, protected her, given her someone to turn to as she lost everyone and everything she had ever loved. Without him by her side, she did not know if she would have survive. 

Gaius did not have time to prod further, for the door soon opened to reveal Merlin and a very, very attractive knight. Not wanting to waste anymore time, Gwen tried to think of a way to get rid of the attractive knight so that she would be able to talk openly with Merlin. With no immediate plan forming, she decided to try being blunt, as Elena would have been if she had been the one to take on this insane mission. 

“Merlin, I need to speak to you in private,” Gwen announced. All three men shared an uneasy glance and Gwen crossed her fingers that this would work. 

“Whatever you need to say you can say in front of Gaius and Lancelot,” Merlin said after a moment. The name Lancelot was enough to distract Gwen though, she had grown up with the stories, and seeing the attractiveness in full force she gave a mental high five to her past life for scoring some highly attractive men. 

“Lancelot?” Gwen squeaked, and cleared her throat awkwardly. “And do they both know about ... um ... your ... special abilities?” 

All three men were completely still and tense. 

“What special abilities?” Merlin asked slowly. 

“Something which could currently get you killed if people knew and so I won’t say it out loud unless you assure me that everyone in this room already knows,” Gwen said and a part of her was relieved when she saw how everyone was shocked but not surprised by what she had said. 

“We know, but how ...” Lancelot said, his deep brown eyes roving over her and she felt a small flush rise under his gaze. 

“Merlin told me, um, future Merlin,” Gwen said. “I would have died a million times over if Merlin hadn’t used his magic.”

This Merlin looked so similar and yet seemed so very young compared to the one she had left behind. His eyes shined with disbelief, as if he dared not believe that Gwen would know about his magic and be okay with that knowledge. Getting off the bench she kneeled before Merlin and cupped his cheeks so that he faced her. 

“Your magic is nothing you should have to hide. It is the only reason we are alive in the future. I love you and nothing could change that,” Gwen promised. “But, I fear I have some bad news.”

“Worse than Morgana releasing a curse that will demolish Camelot?” Gaius asked, one bushy eyebrow raised critically. 

“I wasn’t able to tell Arthur the full story. He, future Arthur, told me not. This is complicated,” Gwen complained, rubbing her temples. “The first thing is that I am from very, very far in the future.”

“So, I found a way to bring your consciousness back to the body of a younger you?” Merlin asked. 

“Impossible,” Gaius said. “There is no spell that can meddle with the past.”

“Merlin created this spell,” Gwen explained. “He created it after Arthur died. He tried to go back and save him, but was never able to. Apparently you can’t go back within your own life.”

“I thought you said Arthur sent you,” Lancelot questioned. 

“He did,” Gwen reassured them. 

“But you just said he died,” Merlin was getting frustrated, and suddenly he looked a bit more like the dark figure from the future that she remembered. 

“I am the reincarnated version of the legendary Queen Guinevere,” Gwen explained. “I was born over a thousand years in the future. My father was a mechanic, like a blacksmith, and I had a younger brother named Elyan who I helped raise after our mother died when he was just a baby. I went to school with Elena, Princess Elena. You, Gaius, you were one of the teachers there.”

“So, a version of me and Arthur, a reincarnated version, sent you here?” Merlin asked. 

Glancing around she noticed the intense skepticism. 

“No. Of course not, you were still you. Obviously,” Gwen said, completely put off by Merlin thinking he could be reincarnated. “Unless ... um, you do know you are immortal, right?”

“Merlin’s immortal?” Lancelot asked, and judging by the dumbstruck look on both Gaius and Merlin’s face, this was news to everyone. 

“Okay ... I am guessing you did not know about the immortal thing,” Gwen muttered, getting up and pacing. “But that doesn’t matter.”

“I think it might kind of matter if I am immortal or not,” Merlin argued. 

“As for Arthur, he died, but surely you three know the prophecy,” Gwen was not happy to be staring at three blank faces. “The Once and Future King?”

“I have heard Arthur referred to as that,” Merlin admitted. “But I was not aware of a prophecy.”

“Wow, okay, it is so hard to believe. There’s hardly a kid that grows up that doesn’t know the legend of King Arthur and Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table,” Gwen shook her head. “Arthur dies by Mordred’s hands on the field of Camlaan, but not all is lost. For just as the life leaves him he is brought to the shores of Avalon and there taken into custody by the Lady of the Lake to be returned in the hour of Albion’s greatest need.”

“So you are a reincarnated version of Gwen, who was brought into the past by Merlin, who is immortal, and Arthur who ... un-died because of a prophecy. And you are now on a mission to kill Morgana because she is about to release a curse that destroys Camelot?” Lancelot asked. 

“Close,” Gwen nodded. “But it destroys the world, not just Camelot.”

“Merlin, might you help me put these books back on the upper shelves,” Gaius said. It was the most blatantly attempt to get someone alone that Gwen had ever witnessed. As the two men stalked over to the opposite side of the room and huddled their heads together, Gwen was left with Lancelot. 

“So, this might not be appropriate,” Gwen said, blushing slightly and unable to finish her question. “Never mind.”

“What is it you wish to ask?” Lancelot asked. 

“It’s just. In the legends, it talks about you ... and me ... I was just wondering how much truth there had been in them. Do you love me, I mean, Gwen. Not me obviously, we just met, but other me, her, that person.” 

Wishing the ground could swallow her whole, she stared determinedly at Merlin and Gaius. The two of them weren’t even attempting to put books away as they huddled together. 

“I love Guinevere with my entire being and would do anything for her,” Lancelot said, so seriously that Gwen felt her heart squeeze with some sort of emotion. She would give anything for someone to say that about her ... which ... he was kind of saying about a version of her. 

“I’m sorry,” Gwen apologized. 

“What for?” Lancelot asked. 

“That your Gwen seems to have disappeared when I arrived,” Gwen said. “And this is a one way ticket, I don’t think I will ever get back.”

“You’re Gwen though,” Lancelot frowned.

“Not your Gwen. We’ve only just met, and you are ... really good looking, like, ridiculously good looking, but that’s it,” Gwen said and hoped he would understand what she was trying to say to him. 

“In that case, my lady,” Lancelot gently grabbed her fingers and raised them to his lips. 

“I’m not a lady,” Gwen said, getting slightly flustered. 

“That is what you said the first time we met,” Lancelot said and gazed at her so intensely that she had to look away. 

“Well, we are not completely different people,” Gwen muttered. “More like the same person born in different times and living different lives.”

“Besides, Gwen made her choice,” Lancelot said, smiling kindly while reflecting such a deep sadness that Gwen’s heart ached. She was barely aware of Merlin and Gaius returning. “She, you, chose Arthur.”

“What? I do not chose Arthur!” Gwen said. “First off, I barely know him. Secondly I am pretty sure Arthur would rather be having sex with Merlin than with me.”

Knowing how Arthur had reacted to any discussion of sex in the future, it perhaps should not have been surprising when Merlin missed the chair he had been about to sit on, Lancelot choked on air and Gaius just looked at her dumbstruck. 

“I’m sorry, I forgot that you guys don’t really talk about things like that,” Gwen apologized. 

“Gwen, we’re not ... I am not ...” Merlin tried to say, his face a deep red. 

“No, it’s fine,” Gwen promised. “I told everyone in the council chamber that I had seen Arthur kiss a man, and the truth is that he was kissing you.”

Both Lancelot and Gaius turned their shocked gaze at Merlin. 

“We’re not,” Merlin shook his head. 

“Okay, as fun as all this denial is, we need to stop Morgana,” Gwen said. “So, the real question is do you believe me?”

As she waited for Merlin and Gaius to stop silently communicating, she tried hard to think of other ways she would be able to stop what was about to happen. Just in case she got thrown into the dungeons, she had several hairpins tucked away in her hair and that she had attached to her sleeve. As a worst case scenario, she hoped that the men in front of her would simply take her word and help her. 

“We believe you,” Merlin finally said and Gwen did not bother to hide her relieved smile. 

“Thank you,” she said instead. 

“I will tell the Prince that you are indeed who you claim to be,” Gaius promised.


	7. A Waiting Game

“Two weeks and I think I am going crazy,” Elena said, flopping beside Gwaine with flailing limbs and a deep sigh. “Entertain me.”

“How am I supposed to entertain you?” Gwaine asked, putting away the car manual he had been reading for lack of anything better to do with his time. He had already helped gather firewood for the wood stove and helped Merlin clean and put away the dishes. Between the morning chores and the afternoon patrol where he would scout out the lakeshore looking for some long dead king, there had been nothing to do. 

“I don’t know ... tell me a funny story,” Elena asked, scooting her body along the couch to be pressed tightly against Gwaine. With big blue eyes, she looked at him guilelessly, waiting for him to start. 

Chuckling under his breath, he tried to think of something, anything to tell her. 

“When I was going to defend my thesis, I had to meet with all these amazing professors and present all of my work. I was terrified,” Gwaine admitted. “So terrified that when I went to the interview, I didn’t realize the meeting was being held in this room with a glass door. Walked straight into it and broke my nose.” 

Guffawing with a burst of laughter and snorts, Elena crinkled her nose and looked positively adorable as she shook with laughter. 

“It’s not funny,” Gwaine teased, putting on his best affronted tone. “It scarred me for life.” 

“I always walked into the glass doors at the library. I would forget the pull doors and Gwen started to carry a first aid kit in her purse because of the amounts of times that I went head first into those things,” Elena told him. 

“They are tricky things those glass doors,” Gwaine commiserated. 

“Guess we won’t have to worry about them much anymore,” Elena said, her face crumpling so that no trace of the humour could be found. 

“Hey,” Gwaine said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Sure ... just ... the electricity is down now,” Elena commented. It had taken a few days before the electricity grid had collapsed. They had not even noticed, not daring to turn on any lights for fear of attracting unwanted attention, it had only been when they went to turn on the stove that they had discovered that the power had gone. Luckily, Gwaine was starting to see the benefit of living with an ancient sorcerer who had spent most of his life cooking, cleaning and living without such modern conveniences.

“It’s been over a week,” Gwaine noted, trying to figure out what the absence of electricity would have to do with Elena’s morose mood. 

“My mobile finally went dead this morning,” Elena said.

“Are you worried about your father?” Gwaine asked, remembering the little bits they had shared of their backgrounds over the past few days. 

“Aren’t you?” Elena asked back, stuffing a wild piece of blonde hair behind her ear. “I texted him and he never responded.”

She didn’t say any more, but she didn’t need to. The worry and lack of communication outside the small three bedroom cottage they found themselves in were taking its toll. Elena was not the only one trying desperately to connect with loved ones beyond these four walls. The only one that had not used up the battery of their mobile trying to contact people was Merlin, who stood rigid beside the lake shore day after day, barely moving except to kill the odd infected who would stumble upon him. 

Unable to lighten the mood, and not willing to face his own emotions and doubts, Gwaine wrapped an arm around her shoulders and brought her head to rest against his chest. She did not weep, but sat there staring at the wall in stony silence. 

“Gwaine?” she asked. 

“Yes?”

“I’m worried about Gwen,” Elena whispered. 

“She seems to be handling everything fine,” Gwaine said. “Better than I would in her situation I’m sure.”

“That’s why I am worried. She’s lost her father and I have barely seen her do more than cry once,” Elena said. “And with all these zombies crawling about and Elyan isn’t doing so well, and there’s only so much one person can take before they snap.”

“You think she’ll snap?” Gwaine asked. 

“I don’t know,” Elena admitted. “Maybe not, but I wish there was a way to help her. To make sure she knew she could come to me.” 

“I am sure Gwen knows that. Besides, she’s not the only one dealing with a loss,” Gwaine reminded her. “We’ve all lost people.”

“Right, of course, Gaius, I didn’t mean to say that you didn’t know,” Elena muttered, getting flustered. Gwaine felt the familiar kick to his stomach that he felt whenever he thought of Gaius. Trying to ignore the sickening feeling, Gwaine shrugged. 

“Don’t worry about it,” He said, once again lifting the instruction manual in the hopes this conversation would end. Gwaine felt no desire to go over the magnitude of what had been lost. 

Arms snuck around his body and suddenly he had wild blonde hair stuffed in his face. Spluttering slightly, Gwaine awkwardly kept his hands clutched on his book, not sure if Elena was hugging or tackling him. 

“You’ve got us,” Elena said, leaning back and giving him a slight peck on his cheek. “You need to shave.”

“What?” Gwaine asked. 

“Shaving. You need to do it.”

“Okay ...”

“It was like giving a peck on the cheek of a porcupine,” Elena informed him. “Merlin’s as smooth as a baby’s bottom, I can get him to give you pointers.”

“Oh, and you know how smooth Merlin’s cheek is?” Gwaine teased. 

“Of course, I like to stroke his cheek as we have wild passionate sex.”

“What?” Gwaine gaped. 

“I’m joking,” Elena said, throwing her head back and laughing so loud it came out in a series of snorts. “You’re too easy.”

Shaking his head, Gwaine craddled Elena closer so they were intwined together on the couch. 

“Want to learn how to make an engine?” Gwaine asked, folding his arms around Elena so that they could both read the text. 

“Just what I’ve always wanted,” Elena laughed, but she settled in his arms and within moments, he could tell she had fallen asleep. Dropping the book on the floor, he tried to let the feeling of contentment pass over him, and to hold onto the moment as it slipped by. 

 

￼

“What do you think your doing?” Gwen hissed as Elyan grinned up at her from where he had downed one of the infected.

“Come on, I just saved our skins,” Elyan muttered, whipping his axe against the muddied t-shirt of the corpse. 

“You didn’t need to get that close to it,” Gwen admonished, quickly grabbing his arms and checking for any scrapes or hurts. 

Elyan pulled his arms away. 

“Gwen, I am fine,” Elyan said. “Now, do you see anything still left that’s edible.”

The inside of the grocery store was a desolate war-zone. Shelves were completely bare and only a few cans and boxes of food remained. In the three weeks, the once bright and cheerful store that Gwen remembered from her childhood was now a dark and stale smelling hellhole. The overpowering stench of rotten eggs and spoiled milk was an offense to her nose and she still wasn’t used to the smell of a post-apocalyptic world. 

Stepping into the next aisle with her gun raised, she sighed in relief at the sight of the empty aisle. Cautiously making her way down the rows of empty shelves, Gwen could hear Elyan shuffling just on the other side of the partition. 

Spotting a lump of cans at the bottom of the lowest shelf, Gwen felt her stomach clench in hope. Unused to such rough conditions, Gwen found herself in a constant state of hunger every waking hour. Scrambling onto her knees, she pulled her backpack off and zipped it open. Cans of mushroom cream soup never looked so good. There were only four cans covered in dust. Hopefully they would last their group for a few nights with a filling meal. 

Crawling onto her knees, she desperately searched for any other cans that might still contain some edible food. Of course there was nothing. Gwen wasn’t sure if there had been a rush on the store during the initial threat of evacuation or if the infected ate more than human flesh, but soon they wouldn’t be able to salvage anything edible from the store. 

A sudden hand on her back had Gwen jerking back and desperately reaching for the weapons she had laying beside her on the dirty, tiled floor. 

“Shhhhh, it’s me,” Elyan whispered from behind her. “I think I heard something moving in by the front door.” 

“Shit,” Gwen swore, and quickly scanned the back wall for any hiding space. A slightly ajar door showed what looked like a tiny office space with a forgotten work schedule attached to it. Grabbing Elyan’s hand she rushed them behind the door and swiftly closed it. 

Everything was completely silent and pitch-black except for the pale natural light which creeped around the edge of the door. Feeling her way towards it Gwen could feel Elyan moving as well. Soon both of them were pressed against the door, eyes glued to the gap between door and wall, eyes darting about to try to catch sight of how many infected it would be this time. 

For a moment there was nothing. 

Gwen felt her heart beat so hard against her chest that she was sure it would be loud enough to give away their position. No matter how much she tried to calm herself, her nerves seemed completely shot. 

They heard the sound of footsteps before they saw anyone. Crisp, brisk footsteps different from the dragging, unsteady ones of the undead. 

Two men came into sight. One was tall and muscled, the other a scrawny man with a goatee, both of them very much alive and uninfected. Despite that, Merlin’s warnings about people who might be in the early stages of the infection made both Elyan and Gwen freeze. Gwen barely suppressed a groan as they stopped by her abandoned backpack with the cans of soup. She had barely enough time to grab her weapons, she had completely forgotten about her bag. 

The scrawny man grabbed the cans and frowned at them. 

“Valiant, you seeing this? It’s barely enough to keep both of us alive,” Goatee man said to Muscles. 

“It’s good enough,” Valiant sneered, knocking the man about the head and grabbing soups to stuff into his bag. 

“How is this supposed to be enough?” Goatee man demands. “I feel like my stomach is caving in on itself.”

“I have a plan,” Valiant promised. 

“Oh yeah, you going to magically make the food multiply?” Goatee scoffed, kicking Gwen’s bag so that it skidded along the floor towards the door the two siblings kid behind. “You think this bag belongs to anyone?”

Gwen had a moment of déjà vu, remembering when they were so much younger and spying on her Father’s clients. Only, back then Gwen had been taller and Elyan had easily fit tucked beneath her. Back then hiding had been fun. Now there was nothing fun about it. 

“Nah, no live ones around here,” Valiant smirked, Gwen thought he seemed completely unbearable. “We’ve been traveling three weeks and have yet to come across one that isn’t some walking corpse.”

“Guess you’re right,” Goatee admitted, turning away from door and making his way towards the front. Gwen crossed her fingers that they were about to leave so that they would be able to sneak out without being noticed. 

“Wait, I forgot something,” Valiant said, and before Gwen could even blink, the man raised his gun and shot Goatee in the head. 

She didn’t think she screamed, but Elyan clamped a hand to her mouth and Gwen watched in morbid fascination as the other man crumpled forward, like a puppet with its strings cut. 

Valiant walked up to the corpse and smiled down at it. 

“See,” he said. “Told you I had a plan to make the food last.” 

Without a backwards glance, Valiant tucked his gun into the back of his jeans and continued on his way. 

He had been gone for a long while before Elyan finally removed his hand from where it covered Gwen’s mouth. Not saying a word, he turned the door knob and the two stumbled out into the aisle. 

Gwen’s frightened stare could not leave the sight of the corpse. It lay face down into a puddle of blood, with awkward limbs spread eagle from where it had fallen. It looked like a cheap horror prop, something so surreal and fake that if it hadn’t been for the deep reeling of her stomach and the fact she had witnessed the murder first hand, it would have been impossible to believe. 

She didn’t have long to gape. Elyan grabbed her empty bag and her hand, dragging Gwen from the grisly scene. 

Once back in the safety of the small kitchen, huddled and protected by the remnants and mishmash of a family, Gwen was the one with the courage and poise to explain what happened. Letting Elyan, who used the rest of his courage getting the two of them out of town, finally be taking care of by Gwen. 

That night, as she and Elyan slept curled together on their Father’s old bed, Gwen tried to find some comfort in the smell of her Father’s cologne that still lingered and the heat of her very much alive brother, but it still wasn’t enough. 

Merlin silently appeared in the doorway. Their eyes met in the oppressive darkness, glinting slightly from the bright moonlight. Neither said a word and Gwen wondered if he could see how broken she felt, just as she could see how sad Merlin was in that moment. Nothing was said, and silently, Merlin slipped away, leaving Gwen to press her eyes closed painfully and clutch at the back of Elyan’s baggy t-shirt to remind herself that not everything was lost. 

 

￼

“And so I told him, you must have forgotten that I take off marks for douchebaggery,” Gwaine regaled them as they sat laughing around the coffee table they had piled their bowls filled with soup, content to lean together and share their company. Only two candles barely lit the room. Merlin chuckled deeply as he absently stroked Gwen’s dark curls from where her head rested against his shoulder. Her back was pressed against his side, her feet tucked under Elyan’s legs from where he was perched on the edge of the sofa.

“You didn’t,” Elena gasped, having to turn and twist from where she was sitting on Gwaine’s lap to see his face. 

“I did! Are you calling me a liar?” Gwaine asked, flirting shamelessly. 

“Were you ever a teacher?” Gwen asked Merlin, tilting her head back against his shoulder to see him just barely. 

“No ... I was a student several times over,” Merlin said, thinking back on his past lives. He reached into his trouser’s front pocket and got out his cigarette, lighting it quickly and taking a deep breath, trying to think if he had ever worked as a teacher before. “One time I had an apprentice ... back when you were Queen of Camelot.” 

“Was he a magical apprentice?” Gwen asked, always curious to find out more about Camelot. It always made Merlin uncomfortable to tell Gwen about her past self, a small part of him still expected everyone to remember, to finally look at him and for better or worse remember him when he was at his best, back when he still had Arthur. 

“Physician actually,” Merlin said. “He apprenticed under me as a physician.” 

He could still remember Kay, an eager young man who was determined to prove himself to the great sorcerer Merlin, the Queen’s right hand man, the recluse of Camelot. His straw blonde hair and deep hazel worshipping eyes following him around. He had been a good friend and the first to start to heal Merlin after Camlaan. 

“I wasn’t very good at it,” Merlin admitted, thinking of a much better master, how Gaius had taken him under his wing and turned a young warlock who had no interest in medicine into someone exalted for his medical knowledge. “Closest I got to teaching was definitely the first few times I apprenticed.”

“Isn’t there a Disney movie about you having an apprentice?” Elyan asked, laughing at Merlin’s grimace. 

“There have been many ... interpretations of my past,” Merlin said. “Most of it isn’t true.” 

“What’s the one thing that’s the most wrong?” Gwen asked. 

“Arthur,” Merlin answered without thinking. He could feel himself blushing and had to take a long drag from the fag to calm himself. “The legends always go on about his courage, loyalty and being a just ruler ... and he was, all those, but he was also human. He was a prat. You’ve never met any one with a bigger head. The legends focus on excalibur, but excalibur was nothing when it came to it, Arthur was simply amazing when he fought. He didn’t need a magical sword. Or how we would sneak into caverns when he was still a Prince, that’s where we met Gwaine, at a tavern.” 

“That seems about right,” Elena teased, poking Gwaine in his side.

“He sounds wonderful,” Gwen said quietly, snuggling against him tightly. “I look forward to meeting him.” 

Silence hung heavy in the room, no one daring to mention the doubt everyone was sure to be feeling. It had been five weeks, and so far the only difference was an increase in zombies. The undead seemed to swell and knock on their door with an increasing frequency that put everyone on edge. Still there was no sign of Arthur. Not so much as a mystical whisper along the dangerous water edges that Merlin haunted each day as the others did various jobs and chores. 

The mood effectively killed, no one dared to be the first to move. Until Elena shocked everyone by turning around suddenly, elbowing Gwaine in the stomach, before grabbing his face and kissing him deeply. Merlin was shocked, but a quick look at Gwaine’s face showed he was not the only one not expecting that to happen. Merlin had seen Gwaine, in his past life, kiss many people, both men and women, but never had he seen Gwaine so unsure, his hands awkwardly hovering and his eyes wide in shock. 

Elena broke away with a final, loud and dramatic smack of her lips, smiling brightly at everyone as if nothing had happened. 

“Um ...” Gwaine said, still frozen where he sat. 

“What?” Elena asked. 

“The kiss,” Gwen said as if that explained everything, and perhaps it did in some secret female language, because a silent dialogue seemed to happen between the two girls until Gwen was giggling intensely into her hand and Elena looked smug. 

“I’ve been thinking we should have sex for the past five weeks,” Elena explained, not even attempting to whisper, causing Merlin to blush slightly. “Do you want to?” 

“Um, yes,” Gwaine said, a big smile breaking through his stupor and before Merlin’s shocked gaze, they both leaped up and dashed out of the room. 

“What just happened?” Merlin asked, Elyan just shrugged. 

“Our friends hooked up,” Gwen said. “Or ... they are currently hooking up.” 

“You don’t seem surprised,” Merlin pointed out. 

“No, I’m just surprised they have lasted this long. Elena usually doesn’t have the patience for long drawn out romances. She’s been quite tactful,” Gwen said. 

“Tactful?” Elyan laughed. 

“By Elena’s standards,” Gwen amended. 

 

￼

Gwen was not sure when the lawns had become so overgrown. Weeds flourished and flowers wilted, and when Gwen wasn’t noticing, suddenly the gardens were overgrown and lawns looked like mini-jungles. She didn’t know how she had not seen those changes.

“There’s one!” Elyan warned her,  it was not far from them, a stumbling rotten corpse that was barely recognizable as human, from where the skin had decayed so its face was an oozing mass of muscles and bones. 

“I’ve got it,” Gwen said. Grabbing her dagger in one hand, and leaving the gun tucked away in the holster, she leapt over the garden fence, knocking the infected corpse down and shoving the dagger hard down into the bloodshot eyes. A slight twitch of nerves and then the corpse finally rested. 

“We’re clear?” She asked, looking back at Elyan. 

“Think so,” he replied. “Let’s see what’s left.”

Gwen wiped off the dagger on the long grass. Looking about cautiously she got to her feet and followed Elyan into the house. This was always the most dangerous part of any scavenging quest into town. Since the murder in the grocery store, they had avoided stores and public areas other people might also be scavenging from. Instead, they went into the more residential parts of town. They went into abandoned houses and took their food and supplies needed from the empty homes. 

The downside to this was definitely the increase in zombie activity. It was not unusual for homes to have one or two of the infected inside. Gwen would sometimes wonder if they had been the previous tenants, if maybe there was some part of the original person who would survive which kept them at home, but she quickly silenced those thoughts - because those thoughts would get her or someone she loved killed. 

Elyan and Gwen slowly entered the house, making sure to open every door they came across. Despite having been doing this for about a month Gwen still felt her heart beat hard against her chest. Behind every door there the possibility of running into one of the monsters. 

Hallway. Clear. Closet. Clear. Living Room. Clear. Kitchen. Clear. Upstairs Hallway. Clear. Bathroom. Clear

Bedroom ... Elyan thrust his sword up, killing the zombie swiftly as it reached for Gwen, mere inches away from where it had been perched by the doorway. As she tried to calm her racing heart, they checked the second small bedroom, relieved to see everything was now clear. 

Tucking their weapons back away, they ran back down the stairs to the kitchen. The cupboards were filled with a mix of blessedly well-preserved food and mould and rot. Ignoring the flies, Gwen and Elyan filled their bags with soup cans, peanut butter, spices, nutella, and unopened bags of pasta. It was one of their better finds. Smiling quietly at each other, they made to leave. 

No sooner had they exited the front door, than they were met with a barrel of a gun. Valiant, the man from weeks ago, stood in front of them. 

“Hello,” Valiant said, his hand never wavering as he eyed her and her brother up. “My name is Valiant. Who are you two?” 

Gwen kept quiet, her mind flashing to the last time she had seen the man, of how he had held his gun as he killed the other man he had been traveling with. She felt Elyan straighten up and stare down the other man. Both of them remained completely silent. 

“Now, now, that’s not very friendly of you two,” Valiant said. “Tell you what, you pass me over your bags and we’ll let that slide. Sound good?”

Even if she wanted to pass over the bags, she was not sure she would be able to. Her muscles had clamped up in fear. 

“I said,” Valiant repeated himself slowly. “Pass over your bags.”

Stiffly, Elyan dropped his bag to the ground. Gwen followed suit. There was enough food back home to last them a few days. Even though it killed to pass over their hard won bounty, there was no way they were going to mess with a man like Valiant. 

“Now kick them over nice and slowly,” he commanded. 

Following his orders, Gwen and Elyan watched as Valiant quickly grabbed the bags with his free hands. 

“Now, I know you will understand that I can’t have you two coming after me,” Valiant said and Gwen suddenly found herself with a gun pointed straight at her head. Her own weapons had never felt so far out of her reach as they did in that moment. 

“No, please, we won’t go after you,” Elyan pleaded, taking a step toward Gwen as if to block her, but Valiant cocking the gun was enough to stop him still. For a long moment it felt as if the entire world had stopped, Gwen sent a silent pleading look to Elyan. She wasn’t even sure what she was pleading for - to be saved, for him to save himself, for everything to be erased and her father to still be alive.  They could not stop staring at each other. Elyan’s dark eyes mirroring Gwen’s own terror. Both of them too aware of what Valiant was capable of. 

“No, you won’t,” Valiant said simply, before his arm swung away from Gwen, a loud bang, and Elyan crumpled forward. She was barely aware of the spray of blood which hit her, too busy watching in horror as Elyan laid, unmoving and dead. It felt like ages before she could look up, but it must have been mere seconds, Valiant was running down the street with their bags. Gwen was not even aware of the gun in her hand until she heard the first bang and the recoil hit her arm like a punch to the gut. 

Valiant crumpled forward but Gwen could not stop. Again and again she fired as she approached his corpse, until the gun was empty and tears were streaming down her face. 

Turning on her heel, she knew it would not be long before the infected showed up. 

Elyan hadn’t moved. Heaving his body into her arms, she was not ready for the dead weight of it. She had barely stumbled halfway down the block when they arrived, a swarm of the undead. The adrenaline was enough to give her a small burst of speed, too aware of the fact that her gun was now empty and completely useless. 

Their car was right there. Opening the door, her arms started to fail her, suddenly unable to get Elyan into the car. 

Looking up, she could see three of them grab Valiant’s corpse, biting into it and tearing it a part. 

Let me go, Gwen started, almost sure she had heard Elyan, but it was impossible. 

“I’m not letting them get you,” she said, tears choking at every word. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” 

Two heaves and Elyan was in the backseat. No sooner was she in the front seat and getting out the keys, that a decayed hand slammed against the drivers window. A gruesome face pressed against the window, clawing at the glass pane trying to get in to get her. Turning the key, she slammed on the gas, making the tires spin as she tore off down the street, briefly glancing back to see at least forty infected piled on top of where Valiant’s body had been laying. 

 

￼

Merlin quietly stood beside the calm water’s of Hog’s Bay. A part of him wondered what Arthur would say if he found out he had spent a millenia in a place locals called Hog’s Bay. If he came back.

The sound of the car approaching made him cast one more furtive glance about the lake, before putting out the butt of the cigarette, stepping on it gently and rubbing it into the dirt. He watched as Gwen got out, but instead of the usual soft smile, she simply stood by the car. 

That deep feeling, the certainty that something was terribly wrong, weighed heavy on him. Slowly approaching the car, he waited for Elyan to climb out of the car. That is when he noticed the splatter of blood against Gwen’s shirt.

“Gwen?” he asked. “Where’s Elyan?”

Gwen fell to her knees, sobbing violently. Merlin rushed to her and grabbed her close. Nothing seemed calm her, and all he could do was weather the storm, clutching her tight as she cried. 

“I couldn’t leave him,” Gwen said, her breath hitching on dry sobs. “I can’t ...” 

“It’s okay,” Merlin said, only to be shoved away. Not expecting it, he fell onto his butt and looked on in shock at the rage coursing through Gwen. 

“Don’t lie to me,” Gwen demanded. “Don’t treat me like an idiot. What’s okay with this world? It’s impossible. My family is gone. Everyone is gone. The whole world has been turned insane and ...”

“What happened?” Merlin asked. 

“There was a man, that Valiant man, he stole our food and then shot Elyan,” Gwen said, looking so lost and afraid that Merlin slowly leaned forward to grip her shoulder. 

“What happened to Valiant?” Merlin asked. 

For a long moment Gwen did not say anything.

“I don’t know,” Gwen said slowly, shaking her head and looking down at her shaking hands. “I didn’t see. He got away.” 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Merlin promised. “You’re safe now. I’ve got you.” 

Not even glancing back at the lake, he helped Gwen back to the car. A single glance in the backseat caught his breath, Elyan was still so young, younger than the first time he died. Swallowing thickly, he brought Gwen to the passenger side and then drove them back home. Elena and Gwaine were huddled together on the front porch as they drove down the lane way. 

“Gwen!” Elena cried, rushing forward as Gwen stumbled out of the car. It seemed Gwen had run out of tears, and simply pressed her face against Elena’s neck clutching desperately at the other girl. Merlin could see the moment that Elena saw the backseat. 

“Shit,” Gwaine whispered, startling Merlin who had not noticed him approaching. Gwaine clapped a hand on his shoulder and together they waited for Elena to help Gwen into the house, before attempting to lift Elyan’s body out of the car. They placed him just outside the garage and went to find a pair of shovels. 

“Sorry, just need a second,” Gwaine said gruffly, wiping at his eyes. “Damn it.” 

Merlin didn’t know what to say. He turned away to give Gwaine a moment to compose himself and stared at the garage windows, remembering the first time, all those years ago, when he had stumbled across the reincarnated versions of his friends. How small, little Elyan had peered at him through those windows and their laughter as they played on the back hill. Swallowing thickly Merlin closed his eyes and made for the hill to start digging. 

Gwaine worked quietly beside him. Merlin used his magic to ease the ground, making it easier to slide their shovels in and move it out of the way. 

“How are you so calm right now?” Gwaine asked, laughing at himself bitterly as he once again stopped to wipe at his eyes. 

Merlin shrugged. “Suppose I just have lots of experience.” 

“How do you keep doing this?” Gwaine asked. “How do you keep burying us?”

“Because I don’t have a choice,” Merlin said thickly, focusing on the strain of his muscles as he rhythmically shoveled. Silence again fell on them. The only sound to be heard was the piercing of the shovel head into the ground and the thud of loads of dirt hitting the ground. 

Two hours later, as they stood in the hole, deep enough for a grave, they both rested against the dirt wall. Gwaine had long since taken off his shirt. 

“Elena and I collected firewood while everyone was gone,” Gwaine said, breaking the silence. “We killed twelve of the infected.”

Merlin groaned, closing his eyes and wishing they did not have to talk about this. Not now that they were sitting in Elyan’s grave. 

“More and more of them are coming out,” Gwaine said what they both knew to be true. What everyone knew to be true. It was just that no one was willing to voice it. No one wanted to admit how dangerous it was to stay in one place or how the number of the infected was increasing as they made their way out of the town and through the countryside looking for flesh. 

“I don’t know how much longer we can stay here,” Gwaine finally admitted, once it was clear Merlin had no intention of adding to the conversation. 

“The world is gone to shit. Where would we go?” Merlin reminded him. Gwaine’s shrug was tired and forced, because they both knew there was no safe haven to turn to. 

That night, after they stood around and buried Elyan, a silent funeral since no one knew what to say. Gwen had simply held out her hand, taken the shovel Merlin had been holding, and started to cover Elyan’s wrapped remains. The silence was suffocating, no one had the nerve to break it. Even as they sat around the kitchen table, unable to find an appetite they said nothing. Merlin smoked several fags just to keep busy. Slowly they broke off as one by one they went to try to find some sleep. 

Merlin was the last one at the table. As he did every night before bed, he made sure to check on each room and strengthen the wards which would let him know if anything was approaching the house. He did not bother checking Gwaine’s room, the rhythmic knocking of the bed against the wall left little to the imagination of how Elena and Gwaine were dealing with their grief. Instead he passed that door and went down to where Gwen was sitting on the bed, just staring off into space. For a moment he was back in Camelot, so much younger and unsure, watching Gwen sit on his small cot, staring at nothing after her father was executed. 

They had been so young back then, so hopeful and naive. This ghostly reminder of that time was too painful to bear. Merlin went to leave, but was stopped by Gwen calling his name. 

Gwen held out her hand and Merlin was powerless to not take hold of it, to let Gwen sit him down beside her. 

“I can’t be alone tonight,” she whispered. 

“I’ll stay,” Merlin promised, keeping his voice soft and low, as if any sudden noise would break this fragile moment. Not bothering to get changed, they moved together to get under the blanket. 

Gwen moved forward and gently laid a hand against his stubbled cheek. In the dark, their faces inches a part on the pillow, Gwen looked as ancient and regal as any reincarnated Queen. 

“It will never get better, will it?” She asked, so softly it was almost lost, but for the sheer silence of the night. 

“No, but you learn to live with it,” Merlin said. 

“That’s a lie,” Gwen called him out, searching deep into his eyes for something. “You’ve had over a thousand years to learn to live with it, but you never have.”

Merlin closed his eyes against the pain, not sure how to explain it, how to explain living with all the grief and regrets he had carried for a millennia. Instead he turned his head and pressed a quick kiss to her palm, trying to show it instead. 

That hand stroked back his hair and then settled on his chest, right above the steady beating of his heart. 

“Lie to me,” Gwen begged. 

“Everything will be fine,” Merlin said, gathering Gwen up in his arms, trying not to think of how many decades it had been since he had slept with someone in his arms. “Everything will be just fine.” 

 

￼

Gwaine woke slowly, blinking his eyes, and smiling slightly at the image he was presented with. Elena stood, staring out the window, completely naked and unbothered by it. His good mood quickly vanished however, with one look at her lovely face.

Surrounded by the worst bed-head Gwaine had ever seen, with blonde hair creating a nest of tangles, her face was etched in misery as she gazed out the window. Getting out of bed and not bothering with clothing, he came up behind her and wrapped around her slight figure. Kissing her neck, he looked out the window, where the freshly dug grave was still visible. 

“Are you okay?” Gwaine asked. 

Elena shook her head, before turning around and kissing him deeply. A single push had him sitting on the bed and Elena crawling onto his lap. Her hands frantically pulling at his flaccid cock and bringing him to hardness. 

“Whoa,” Gwaine said, completely unprepared for the onslaught. “Easy there.”

“No,” Elena said. Bringing his cock to her entrance and quickly sheathing herself on him. Her head thrown back as she began to ride him fast and furious. 

“Make me forget,” she pleaded between moans as she moved frantically in his lap, unable to move fast enough or get a good angle from her position. 

Never one to disappoint a lady, Gwaine flipped them over so that he could control the thrusts, trying to match Elena’s desperation with a hard fuck that kept any thoughts at bay. It didn’t last long, couldn’t last long at the break neck pace they tried to keep. As Gwaine slumped forward, completely spent, and Elena gently patted his hair, too blissed out to even pull up the covers, Gwaine kissed her softly. 

“I think I might be falling in love with you,” Elena said. “Just, with everything happening, I wanted to make sure you knew that. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way. I don’t expect anything. Just thought I should tell you.” 

Stopping her rambling with a kiss, Gwaine pressed a quick kiss to her nose, which made her snort with laughter. 

“It’s okay,” Gwaine said. “I think I might be falling in love with you too.” 

“Oh, okay, good,” Elena flushed. “Glad we cleared that up.”


	8. Breaking Points

**~Camelot~  
3 Days to Samhain's Eve**

￼

“You are planning to kill her,” a soft voice said from behind Gwen. Turning around her heart jumped wildly in her chest as she was face to face with Lancelot. The fire behind her seemed to highlight his perfect chiseled jaw and stubble. A small part of her, that sounded oddly like Elena, begged her to just lick along his exposed skin and see what it tasted of.

“I’m sorry, what?” Gwen asked, snapping her self out of those wayward thoughts. 

“You plan to kill Morgana,” Lancelot said and the disappointment in his eyes was too intense to face head on, she turned back to the fire. She noticed how both Arthur and Merlin seemed to be tracking her every move very closely. 

“I have no other choice,” she said quietly, staring at the leaping flames. It had been a long day riding on a horse and every muscle in her protested. 

“You mustn’t,” Lancelot said. “Let me. I have killed a man before, but you do not understand the cost.”

“Don’t,” Gwen warned. 

“I am already tarnished,” Lancelot begged. “Go back to Camelot, where you will be safe.”

“I understand that you want to protect me, but I am a big girl Lance,” Gwen snapped, drawing some unwanted attention from the surrounding knights. “So drop it.”

“I just worry,” Lancelot started, but it was already too much and a part of her, a small part that had been holding on by a string since Elyan’s death, maybe even before that, finally snapped. 

“I can defend myself, I survived the apocalypse,” Gwen said shortly. 

“Killing a monster is not the same as killing a human,” Lancelot argued. 

“And who is to say I haven’t killed a human?” Gwen asked, tears forming and burning behind her eyes and at the back of her throat. The truth finally falling out of her mouth. After weeks of being unable to confess what she had done that day she finally said it aloud. “I killed the man who killed Elyan. He wasn’t a monster, just a man, and I killed him.”

“Gwen ...” Lancelot faltered, looking lost and unsure. “We’re knights, we are trained for this. Let us handle this.”

“Fine, let’s settle this then, fight me,” Gwen challenged, standing tall in front of the fire. 

“What?” Lancelot asked, glancing around at where the knights were circled around them. 

“I said, fight me,” Gwen repeated. 

“I won’t fight you,” Lancelot said. 

She barely remembered forming a fist before she had hit Lancelot in the face. Not expecting it, he stumbled back holding his face. 

“Fight me,” Gwen yelled, pushing against the metal plated chest. 

“Gwen,” Arthur called out, and his arms wrapped around her waist to pull him away. The feel of his arms and the cold metal, so cold and damp, looking down all she saw was rotten flesh. 

“No!” She screamed, and there was no finesse, she took the arm around her and snapped it back. With a sickening crunch she was freed only to have other zombies attack her, trying to grab her. They surrounded her, she couldn’t get away, she could barely breath. Grabbing a stick from the ground she fought tooth and nail to keep the infected away.  

“Gwen!” Merlin yelled and suddenly, she was face to face with him.

“Merlin?” Gwen asked. 

“You’re safe now,” Merlin said. “You don’t need to fight, just put the sword down.”

“Sword?” Gwen glanced down, no longer holding a stick, instead her arms suddenly ached as the heavy sword dangled in her arm. “Where did I get a sword?”

“Do you trust me?” Merlin asked, slowly moving forward as if scared she would spook. 

“With my life, always,” Gwen whispered. As Merlin’s hand wrapped around her shaking hands, he gently pried the sword away from her. When it left her grip she crumpled forward against Merlin and buried her head in his chest. The sobs that wracked her were unstoppable. She was barely aware of conversation happening around her. 

When all the tears left her she kept her face firmly hidden against the rough fabric of Merlin’s shirt. Eventually Merlin brought her to where the bedding had been set beside the fire. 

As Merlin made to leave, she grabbed his hand. 

“Sleep with me,” Gwen pleaded. Merlin blushed fiercely. 

“I must help Arthur,” he blustered. 

“Please,” Gwen begged. “You are my best friend and ... I need you Merlin.” 

Moving stiffly, he laid down beside her. Too tired to care about fitting in with this time period, Gwen threw the blanket over both of them, flung a leg over Merlin’s and used his shoulder as a bony pillow. 

“So we ...” Merlin muttered. 

“We’re best friends,” Gwen reassured him. “You are pretty strictly into cock in the future.”

Merlin let out a slightly strangled laugh. Gwen could make out where both Arthur and Lancelot were sitting. As Gwen met Arthur’s stare from across the fire, there was not even an attempt to hide the fact that he was listening to everything she said. 

“Actually, to be more specific,” Gwen said slowly, keeping eye contact with Arthur. “You are strictly into Arthur’s and Arthur is pretty strictly into yours.”

“That’s impossible,” Merlin whispered. 

Watching as Arthur flushed, his eyes darkening with lust and turning away to hide from her knowing gaze, Gwen shrugged. 

“You never know.”


	9. The Once & Future King

￼

Three days after Elyan’s funeral, Merlin watched as Gwen put more flowers on top of Elyan’s grave. Elena came to stand beside him and passed a cup of tea into his hand.

“She’s not doing too well,” Elena commented. 

“She’s now lost her father and brother in less than three months of each other. She’s doing as well as we can expect,” Merlin said. “How about you? How are you doing?”

“The fact I can have sex with Gwaine anytime I want kind of helps,” Elena said brightly, causing Merlin to choke on his tea. “He has this trick with his tongue where -” 

“It’s okay,” Merlin cut her off. “I don’t really need to details.”

Sighing Elena took another long gulp of her tea. Shaking her head, she kept her eyes glued on Gwen. 

“I just feel like there is something more I should be doing,” Elena said. 

“Me too,” Merlin admitted. 

Slapping him hard against his back un-expectantly and forcing Merlin to spill a large quantity of tea down his front, Elena said, “I’m glad we have you.”

“Er, thanks,” Merlin muttered, uttering a small spell to quickly fix his clothes and get rid of his spill. 

“But seriously, I know we probably haven’t said this to you, but none of us would be here if it weren’t for you. We would have been goners ages ago,” Elena said so sincerely Merlin was unsure what he should say. 

A wave of dizziness hit him suddenly. He was barely aware of the tea cup slipping from his hand and breaking against the porch. 

“Merlin?” Elena called out to him but her voice was behind a rushing sound that filled his head. 

“Gwen! Gwaine!” Elena called out, and he wasn’t sure when he ended up on the floor, but he was definitely on the floor now. When he was fully aware of himself again, he looked up at the three worried faces above him. 

He could feel the tears wet against his cheek and deep within him a flame alive with hope and love burned so brightly that he could not keep the smile off his face. 

“Arthur is coming,” he told them. “I can feel it. He’s coming now.” 

No one questioned him. Instead they helped him off the floor and all but ran for the car. Watching the scenery fly by as they made the now routine drive to the lakeside, Merlin could feel his magic rejoicing in ways it hadn’t in ages. 

He felt so stupid. Of course he would know when Arthur would return. He thought back to all the times he had been disappointed over the centuries and how bitter he had become about it, but he should have known his magic would notify him of his King’s return. It was so obvious. 

The car was still rolling to a stop when Merlin jumped out and didn’t bother to close the door as he bounded off to the lake. Ignoring his friend’s calling out to him, he jumped into the chilly waters and stood there, waist deep. 

The water was calm, only a slight wind creating a rippling water top. He knew he must look mad to them right now, but he could feel it building, feel the magic returning with such a vengeance it took his breath away. 

They didn’t have long to wait. The water in front of Merlin began to bubble and foam. 

“Holy shit!” Gwaine exclaimed from the shoreline. 

Rising out of the water, the first thing Merlin saw was the blonde hair, soon followed by a muscled torso. It was mere seconds for Arthur to appear, standing in front of him and blinking water out of his eyes. Merlin was unable to move. He could do little more than gape at Arthur. 

Despite waiting for so long for this moment, now that it was here, Merlin felt bereft.

“Merlin?” Arthur asked, frowning at him, looking completely bewildered. The sound of his voice broke through to Merlin and wading deeper into the water, he clutched Arthur to him tightly, unable to voice anything, but cling to him tightly. Finally stepping back to drink in the sight of his returned King, he watched as Arthur looked up to the shoreline. “Gwaine? Guinevere?” 

His eyes than turned back to Merlin, roving over his body in a way that warmed Merlin and aroused him slightly. 

“What is everyone wearing?” Arthur asked, completely bewildered. 

Laughing loudly, Merlin once again hugged him close, despite Arthur’s grumbles. 

“It’s a long story,” Merlin said. “Let’s get you home first.” 

Turning to help Arthur wade out of the lake, Merlin went to smile up at everyone waiting for them. His smile dropped suddenly as he saw an infected standing right behind Gwen, ready to take a bite into her. 

“Gwen! Duck!” He yelled. Not missing a beat, Gwen dropped to the ground, leaving Merlin free to use his magic to fling the zombie backwards and far enough away from Gwen that she was able to take her dagger and stab it repeatedly in the head. 

It was not the only zombie though. At least a dozen stood between them and the car. 

“Merlin?” Arthur asked, his tone completely overwhelmed and it made Merlin’s heart hurt to know how confused he must be in that moment. But there was no time to comfort him, or try to be who he had been so many years ago. 

Only too aware of how badly this could end for everyone, Merlin knew there was one thing he had to do or he would regret it for the rest of his life. Grabbing Arthur’s face he pressed one desperate kiss to those lips that had haunted him for so long. 

“Just don’t die,” Merlin commanded the spluttering Arthur. “We need to get to the car.” 

With that he ran to the shore, splashing and moving as fast as he could against the water, drawing out his gun as he went. 

“What’s a car?” He heard Arthur yell behind him. 

There was no time to respond. Gwaine and Elena fought together like a well oiled machine, Elena keeping most of them at bay with her bows and arrows. While Gwaine attacked the ones that got through Elena’s archery. Gwen was overwhelmed however, five had surrounded her, and though she was able to dodge and stab and drop two by the time Merlin made it to shore, he could see her tiring. Firing three rounds, he killed the other three, quickly running to Gwen to make she was not injured. 

“I’m fine,” she gasped. “They didn’t bite me. Not even a scratch.” 

“Get to the car,” Merlin commanded. He turned around and for a moment forgot where he was, Arthur was swinging his sword, completely naked, and so focused Merlin felt arousal hit him with a strength he had not felt in a millennia. Arthur’s sword barely grazed the infected and they burst a part as if they had never actually been there. 

Merlin was not sure where Arthur had found Excalibur, but watching as he dispatched the zombies so easily, Merlin could feel hope finally returning to him. 

“Merlin!” Gwen cried out. Turning around, he was face to face with the snarling, rotten face. Gwen shoved her dagger up through it’s unhinged jaw. 

Quickly scanning the horizon for any more infected, Merlin used his magic to check the wider area. The closest zombie he found was several fields away, but making their way towards them. They had ten minutes approximately to get out of there. 

Turning around to let everyone know, he stopped dead at the sight of everyone gawking at a highly uncomfortable Arthur. 

“Mate, you do know your butt-naked right now, right?” Gwaine asked. Arthur obviously did not know this, since he suddenly, and much too late, attempted to cover up. 

“Merlin! Where are my clothes?” Arthur demanded, and it was so familiar and a part of himself he had thought had long ago died seemed to reawaken. 

“I don’t know,” Merlin said. “You’re the one that’s all naked.” 

“Let’s get going,” Gwen said softly, glancing around them anxiously. 

“Right,” Merlin nodded, grabbing Gwen’s hand to silently let her know it was all right. Arthur followed them to the car but hesitated as they all got in. Merlin patted the seat beside him and arched a challenging eyebrow. As expected, Arthur was not one to turn away from a challenge, and sat down gingerly on the seat as if he expected it to bit him. With Arthur on one side and Gwen on the other, Merlin felt very squished in the backseat. 

Arthur yelled out as soon as Gwaine started the car and backed up. 

“What sorcery is this?” Arthur demanded, white-knuckling the door and chair in front of him, as they raced down the empty roadway. 

“Just wait until we’re home,” Merlin said. “It will be safer there.” 

 

￼

Gwen sat a cup of tea down in front of Arthur and then quickly made her way to sit beside Elena and Gwaine, as they all crowded on one side of the kitchen table and watched the legendary King Arthur sitting on the other side of the table. With wide eyes they watched as Arthur took a sip and frowned at his cup. He looked completely out of place, wearing her father’s old clothes which were two sizes too big for him so that they draped over him.

“What is this?” He asked. 

“Tea,” Elena answered. 

Eyeing them all as if the three of them were the weirdest people on the planet, Arthur took another sip. If there had been any lingering doubts about Merlin’s story of past-lives and being immortal, there certainly wasn’t anymore. Not when there was living, breathing proof right in front of them. 

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Merlin entered the kitchen. 

“Merlin,” Arthur drawled. “Just the man I wanted to talk to.”

“Sorry Arthur, I just had to ...” Merlin pointed at one of his cigarette’s he was smoking. 

“What is that?” Arthur demanded. 

“Um, a fag,” Merlin said. “I mean, it’s just tobacco which is ... um, you light and smoke it and ... it’s actually kind of hard to explain.”

“It’s a bad habit he has,” Gwen summarized. 

“I thought you said we were heading home,” Arthur said. “This is not Camelot. Where are we?”

“This is my house,” Gwen said.

“Impossible,” Arthur scoffed. “We live in Camelot, even before we were married you lived in the lower town.”

“Arthur,” Merlin said softly. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“You mean before what I can only assume are corpses tried to attack us?” Arthur asked, but then he paused and frowned down at the table. The silence lasted for so long, Gwen was sure he would say that he did not remember anything. Finally, he spoke again, “I remember the battle, and Mordred ... and then ... your magic. You’ve had magic this entire time.”

“Yes,” Merlin said, his eyes shining with unshed tears. 

“Wait ... you mean you didn’t know about Merlin’s magic?” Gwaine asked, incredulously. “I thought everyone knew!”

“You told Gwaine?” Arthur demanded, looking so hurt that Gwen could have kicked Gwaine, but it seemed Elena beat her to it. 

“No, he never knew,” Merlin said. 

“Well, he obviously knows now,” Arthur pointed out the obviously, waving an arm to where Gwaine was rubbing his shin from where Elena had kicked him. 

“Only this version of him,” Gwen promised. 

“Version?” Arthur asked.  
 “Yes, I mean, surely you can already see how different everything is,” Gwen said. “You’ve been gone for a long time King Arthur.”

Arthur frowned and shook his head as if to clear it. 

“Arthur, you died,” Merlin said and Gwen’s heart ached to hear Merlin’s voice break under the weight of those words. “You died and I couldn’t save you.”

“But, I’m still here,” Arthur said. 

“Yes, but you’ve been gone so long ... there is no more Camelot,” Merlin said. “Albion has come and gone and been renamed. Arthur, it’s been over a thousand years.” 

Arthur stood up suddenly, causing everyone to jump slightly. 

“I need a moment,” he said gruffly and then charged out the front door. Merlin followed quickly on his heels. Unsure what to say, the three sat quietly at the table. 

“Holy cow that man is hot,” Elena finally said. “Good job Gwen, bagging that fine piece of ass, you know, in your past life. Go past you!”

“Hey, I thought I was the hot man in your life,” Gwaine mock scowled. 

“You’re a close second,” Elena teased. “But seriously, we should so have a threesome with him.” 

“What?” Gwaine laughed. 

“Are you saying a small part of you does not want to tap that ass?” Elena pointed at the door they had just disappeared through. Gwaine shrugged and winked roguishly. 

“Oh god, okay, that’s my sign to leave the room when you two start planning threesomes,” Gwen said, not wanting to know more than she already did about her best friend’s love life. She still had not gotten over the time that she had woken up to see Elena riding on top of their residence assistant. Elena had promised she had thought Gwen was still in the library, but there were some images no words could erase, and before she became mentally scarred further, Gwen took the better part of valour, grabbed the tea pot and left the room. 

 

￼

“Arthur!” Merlin called out, running after him. Arthur stood on the back hill and stared down at Merlin wildly. He had forgotten how intimidating and real Arthur had been, but as Arthur stopped running away and stalked towards him, he was reminded all over again.

“Why are you chasing after me?” Arthur demanded. 

“It’s not safe to be out here alone,” Merlin panted, completely out of breathe from the image that Arthur cut. The sinking sun casting long shadows, and the deep red light creating a blood-like halo around Arthur’s fair hair. 

“How is this possible,” Arthur ranted. “How can it possibly be thousands of years if you and Gwen, Gwaine and Elena are still alive?”

“It’s called reincarnation,” Merlin tried to explain. “It was never the most popular belief, but there were some who believed in it when you were King. It gained more of a following later, but surely you must remember those who followed those believes.”

“You would have me believe that you all were just born again, looking exactly as you were,” Arthur scoffed. 

“I know it is hard to believe,” Merlin said. “But we need you to accept this. It’s been a thousand years and we have a bit of a zombie apocalypse happening right now.” 

“What is a zombie?” Arthur asked. 

“Those corpses that attacked us,” Merlin explained. “Arthur, I know we’re demanding too much, but we need you to trust us.”

“Trust you?” Arthur asked, and suddenly he was so close they were barely inches a part. “You’ve lied to me for years. You have magic.”

“No, I am magic,” Merlin corrected. 

“It’s the same thing,” Arthur said roughly. 

“It is really not,” Merlin argued. “I’m not like Gwen, Gwaine and Elena. Those three were reborn. Arthur, they have no memory of their past lives.”

“And what? Because you have magic, you do remember?” Arthur guessed. 

“No, I remember because I was never reborn,” Merlin said. “I have never died Arthur. I have lived a thousand years waiting for your return.” 

Suddenly it was too much. The years that had stretched endlessly, the pain and suffering, the ups and downs of his centuries alone, came crashing down on him. He found himself kneeling in front of his King. Completely at his mercy, Merlin looked up at Arthur’s bewildered gaze. 

“I have waited for so long,” Merlin gasped. 

“Merlin, how is that possible?” Arthur asked, his hand, which was always gloved in his memories and dreams, now bare against his skin where Arthur pressed it hesitantly against his cheek. “What are you?”

“Yours,” Merlin rasped out. Every thought, every dream and wish, every time he had desired the lover he had been with would have been a little blonder, a little more built, a little more Arthur. A thousand years of wanting had Merlin pressing open mouth kisses to Arthur’s palm. As Arthur groaned above him, Merlin couldn’t help but close the distance mouthing at his clothed cock. Finding Arthur so hard and ready for him had Merlin scrambling for the zipper, only to have his hands stilled by Arthur. 

“We can’t,” Arthur gasped. “I’m married.”

“Not anymore,” Merlin argued, mouthing against his cock, wishing desperately for the taste of it rather than worn denim. “This Gwen has never met you before.”

Arthur moaned as Merlin tried to suck him down, despite the trousers in his way. 

Arthur moved away, met him on his knees, and suddenly they were kissing. Hard and desperate, Merlin tried to give Arthur everything he had to offer. 

Arthur pulled away, pressed his forehead against Merlin’s. 

“We can’t,” Arthur said. 

“Please,” Merlin pleaded. 

“Too much has changed, I can’t,” Arthur shook his head. “It’s too soon.”

“It’s been a thousand years,” Merlin said, kissing Arthur again, trying to make him forget reason. 

“Not for me,” Arthur gasped, breaking away. “I just need a little time.”

“Fine,” Merlin said, because he was never able to deny his King anything. However, before they could break a part, Merlin could not deny himself one more kiss, this one a gentle, almost chaste slide of lips. 

“You still never do what I say, do you?” Arthur chuckled, even though it came out forced and rough, Merlin couldn’t help but smile at it. 

“You told me not to change,” Merlin reminded him cheerfully. 

“Just a little bit of time,” Arthur promised before leaving Merlin on his knees, watching him walk back into the house. 

It took a while before Merlin felt the dampness of the earth penetrate his trousers and he remembered where he was. With an aching heart he entered back into the house, and without thinking about it, he went to Gwen’s room. They had been sharing a bed for the past few nights, Gwen’s nights filled with so many night terrors the only way she could sleep was with another person beside her. 

Tonight though, it was not Gwen being comforted. Instead it was Gwen that helped him change into dry clothes and then put him to bed. Gwen who kissed his forehead chastely and lied to him. 

“Everything will be fine,” she said. “We’re going to be just fine.”

“We need to take him to Camelot,” Merlin said. “He won’t understand until we take him there.”

“Then that’s what we will do,” Gwen agreed. “Besides ... I don’t know how much longer I can stay here.”

“I understand,” Merlin said. 

“I know,” Gwen replied. “Merlin?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Goodnight.”

“Night.”


	10. Confessions

**_~Camelot~  
2 Days to Samhain's Eve_ **

￼

“I am sorry,” Gwen said. Merlin saw where she was helping Lancelot change the dressing on the wound where she had cut him along the forearm. “I don’t know what came over me. I cannot tell you how sorry I am.”

“Don’t,” Lancelot said, stilling her hands with his own and smiling down at her. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

“I hurt you, and the other knights,” Gwen said. “You were trying to be all chivalrous and I lost it.”

“I pushed too hard,” Lancelot apologized. “I just hate to see you hurt.”

“You really live up to your legend,” Gwen muttered, once again tying a new piece of cloth around his wound. 

“I wish you were happy,” Lancelot said softly. 

“You make me happy,” Gwen said, blushing slightly and Merlin turned away to be faced with a wounded Arthur. 

“You alright?” Merlin asked. Arthur jerked out of his reverie, and stared at Merlin for a moment. 

“She’s not Gwen,” he said finally. 

“Why do you say that?” Merlin asked, not comfortable divulging Gwen’s confession of reincarnations and future lives. 

“She acts as if Leon is a stranger to her, she is acting as if she has never met Lancelot and ... she does not love me,” Arthur said, and Merlin wished his magic could somehow erase the hurt Arthur felt. 

“Arthur,” Merlin trailed off, unsure what to say.

“Do not lie to me,” Arthur commanded. “Tell me the truth.”

“She told me she was a reincarnated version of Gwen,” Merlin admitted. “Apparently whatever this curse is that Morgana releases, it won’t be felt for over a thousand years.”

“You do not believe her, do you?” Arthur asked incredulously. 

“Yes,” Merlin admitted. “She might not have her memories of this life, but are you saying you do not still see Gwen when you look at her?”

“It could be a trick,” Arthur cautioned. “Gwen would never have attacked us the way she did.”

“Gwen has never had to kill people to survive,” Merlin argued. “Gaius told me of battle madness. How some knights don’t come back the same.”

“Gwen is not a knight,” Arthur said. 

“Which makes it worse.”

Arthur turned away and watched Gwen and Lancelot speaking in soft voices. Grimacing, he turned away from the scene and Merlin quickly followed him away from their makeshift camp. Arthur did not pause until they were in a deserted opening in the forest. 

“Where are you going Arthur?” Merlin asked, huffing out an irritated breath as Arthur peered into the forest. 

“I heard you and Gwen talking last night,” Arthur admitted. “Is it true?”

Merlin blushed and tried to think about what had been said. 

“Afraid you will need to be more specific,” Merlin hedged. “What did you hear?”

Arthur snapped his mouth shut and turned away from Merlin. He could think of several things that had been said that would have not been good if Arthur had overheard it. Thankfully he did not think his magic had been mentioned. 

For a moment Merlin was sure that Arthur would let whatever was bothering him drop. 

However, that was not the case. Arthur spun around and stalked toward Merlin with such determination that Merlin was forced back into a tree. Still Arthur did not stop walking forward until he was mere inches away from Merlin. 

They had been in close proximity many times. Helping dress Arthur and preparing his bath meant that they had been closer than most men had an occasion to be. Nothing like this though. 

Merlin felt his heart beating faster and his breathing becoming harder. 

“According to this future Gwen, we are intimate,” Arthur said, his voice rough and low. 

“Yes,” Merlin gasped, hating how his body was betraying him. If Arthur looked down he would see all too clearly how much Merlin liked the idea of them being intimate. 

“And what say you?” Arthur demanded. 

“What do you want me to say Arthur?” Merlin asked helplessly. 

Arthur lowered his gaze and there was no hiding the erection pressed to the front of his trousers. Unable to face Arthur, Merlin glared blearily at the tree tops and tried to will away his embarrassment. 

Arthur would have none of it though. 

Grabbing Merlin’s head Arthur kissed him with a bruising intensity. Merlin answered with his own passions, taking what was given and demanding more. They did not embrace so much as wrestle as they tore at clothes and mouthed, nipped at the skin that was exposed. 

Anyone could stumble across their clearing, so they did not bother being fully naked. Instead Arthur reached down and took out their cocks to press them against one another. It was a heaven Merlin had never known had existed. 

It was only after they came and remained fused together that they slowed down. Limp cocks pressed together and damp from their shared release, Merlin all but purred as Arthur traced fingers up and down his arms, back, neck. 

“We should get back,” Arthur finally said. 

Merlin wanted to ask what this meant. How they could possibly make this work when Arthur still needed to get married, but for now he forced his mind to be quiet. For the moment it was enough to kiss Arthur and feel him kissing back. 

There was time for everything else.


	11. Camelot

￼

Gwen helped heave the last of the bags into the car. They had packed as much food as they could, unsure when, if ever, they would be back. Deep down Gwen had a feeling, a certainty, that she would never see the house again.

It had been eerily quiet over the past few days. Only two infected stumbling across the house and both had been easily taken care of. With excalibur in hand, Arthur proved to be an invaluable asset when it came to protecting them against the zombies. 

Once the car was packed and the gas cans had been added, from where Gwaine had siphoned all the neighbours vehicles for enough to keep them on the road for a bit. Camelot, apparently, was only a few hours down the road. Back in the time of legends it would have taken them a few days of travel to make the journey, now they were looking at a five hour drive. They planned to stop once and make sure Arthur was holding up okay being transported on a motorbike - not that they had told him that. Merlin had told him the vehicles would need refueling. 

Using the moment to walk through the house once more, Gwen felt an intense pang of nostalgia of happier times with her brother and father. Exiting out the back door, she made one last trip to her brother’s grave. 

“I need to leave now,” Gwen said, looking down at where the weeds were valiantly trying to reclaim the earthy mound. “I don’t know if we’ll be back.”

Looking up the hill it was only too easy to remember running up and down the grassy slope as children. Elyan had loved the way gravity forced his legs to move faster so that they felt out of control. Remembering his laugh caused Gwen to get choked up. 

“I’m sorry, Elyan.,” Gwen gasped through the pain. “I promised to protect you and I screwed up. It should have been me.”

Taking a deep breath, Gwen tried to get her emotions back under control. Angrily wiping her tears away. 

“I know I told you how Arthur came back, but we’re heading out to Camelot now. Just, just know that I will always love you. Goodbye little brother,” Gwen said. 

Wiping again at her tears, she turned around and started at seeing Arthur standing right there. 

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“I’m fine,” Gwen reassured him. “I just ... wanted to say goodbye to Elyan.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize he had died ... again, I mean, this time,” Arthur stumbled with his words. “I remember how deeply it hurt you last time.”

“So he died young last time too?” Gwen asked. Arthur looked unsure of what to say and nodded awkwardly. “He never gets a full life? He’s just doomed to die early like the rest of us.” 

She left Arthur standing by the grave. 

 

￼

 

Gwaine couldn’t help but feel relieved as they drove down the road. Their few months at Gwen’s place had seemed to last for ages, and cabin fever had been starting to drive him crazy. Now, in a small village two hours away from the lake Arthur had appeared in, it was like he was finally able to breath again. 

Smiling at Elena riding shotgun, he pulled off as he saw Merlin stop. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of King Arthur, clutching tightly at Merlin. As everyone climbed off, Gwaine also picked up on how their hands seemed to stray and both seemed rather more aroused than a standard platonic motorbike ride.

“How’d you enjoy your ride, Princess?” Gwaine asked, laughing at the way Arthur blushed. 

“Are you sure he doesn’t remember?” Arthur asked Merlin. 

“Just because they don’t remember doesn’t make them complete strangers,” Merlin said. “You get used to it over time. The mix of old and new.”

“We should see if we can scavenge anything from some of these houses,” Elena said, eyeing the row of houses. “We could use the food.”

“I’ll go with you,” Gwaine offered. “Think we can hold off for ten minutes, Merlin?”

“Sure,” he said, tossing one of the nearly empty bags of food to Gwaine. “Just be quick about it.”

“Are they looting?” Gwaine heard Arthur asked, sounding scandalized. 

“It’s not looting if the owners are already dead,” he heard Gwen say, before they were too far down the street. 

They picked a random house to enter first. Making sure all the rooms were cleared, there was not a single infected in the entire building. There was also no food in the single entire building. 

Hoping for more luck across the street, they quietly entered and started to check rooms. Everything was clear until they reached the first bedroom. A slight creaking noise had both of them sharing a look. Tightening their grips on their weapons they prepared themselves to take out a couple of infected. Opening the door, they were not expecting to see two dozen. Unable to close the door as they started pouring out, Gwaine killed two before a cry of pain had him glancing over at Elena, who clutched her shoulder as she beheaded the one which had bitten her. 

His distraction cost him dearly as a pain appeared in his side. Not taking the opportunity to see what it was, he hacked and killed until finally both he and Elena had fought them back enough to close the door. 

Leaning against the door as it shook and rattled, Gwaine looked at Elena’s panicked eyes. 

“We’re bit,” she whimpered. “We’re infected.”

“No,” Gwaine said, shaking his head even as he felt the temperature of his body rise uncontrollably. 

“I’m so hot,” Elena whimpered, her body arching as the bite took hold of her. 

“Hey, hey,” Gwaine said, clutching her close. “I’ve got you.”

“Kill me,” she pleaded. “Please, I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“I can’t,” Gwaine said, kissing her. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Elena smiled at him. “You were my hottest professor ever.”

Kissing her deeply, Gwaine tried not to cry out when the pain got to intense. He just kept a hold of Elena, looking deeply into her scared blue eyes. Determined that the last thing he would see was her.

  
￼

“It has been too long” Gwen said, biting her fingernails as she stared determinedly down the street. “They should have been back by now.”

“We need to get moving,” Merlin said, pacing in front of her, and stopping every now and again to stare down the street and take another puff of his cigarette. 

“We’re not leaving without them,” Arthur said, looking completely outraged at Merlin for even suggesting it. “We need to go and find them.”

“And what if they were ambushed?” Merlin snapped back. “If we go down there, we could be running into whatever trouble they found.” 

“I’m the King, it’s my responsibility to protect my people,” Arthur shouted back. 

“You’re not though,” Gwen piped up, causing both boys to look at her, not expecting someone to join with their argument. “You’re not the King and we’re not your people.” 

“Gwen,” Merlin warned, eyeing Arthur worriedly. 

“No Merlin, we’re going on this whole trip to show Arthur that Camelot is long gone, and it’s time we stop pussy-footing around it,” Gwen said. “Even if you did come back during your own time, we are literally in an apocalypse. As in there are no people to rule over. And the only thing to do is survive. So I agree with Merlin. We need to go. It is too dangerous to stay in a populated place like this for long. Gwaine and Elena know where we are heading, and there are several cars they can steal to meet us there.”

“Steal? Guinevere,” Arthur said. 

“Don’t! My name is Gwen,” she said. “You seem like a nice guy, but I don’t know you. You are not my King and you are certainly not my husband. So ... yeah ... that’s that then.” 

“I will leave Kilgarragh with them,” Merlin said, pointing at his motorbike. “If they make it back, then Gwen’s right, they know where we’re heading.”

“I thought you said you hadn’t changed,” Arthur said, staring at Merlin as if seeing him for the first time. “You would have never left Gwaine to this sort of fate.”

“You can’t live for a thousand years and not change,” Merlin gasped. 

“Obviously,” Arthur said, but he didn’t argue anymore. Instead he slumped into the car and sat staring out the front window. 

“You okay?” Gwen asked, rubbing a comforting hand up and down his arm. 

“Everything I am is for him, but it’s not enough,” Merlin said simply, looking so lost and sad, Gwen had no idea what to say. He flicked the butt onto the sidewalk. They both got into the car and for a moment they didn’t move. Everyone looking down the road to see if perhaps Gwaine and Elena would appear. Nothing happened though, and Merlin sighed deeply before pulling away and continuing on down the road. 

“Feels wrong, leaving Kilgarragh,” Merlin muttered in the silent car. 

“That bike means a lot to you,” Gwen noted. 

“John gave it to me,” Merlin said. “He was a ... friend of mine. Fought in World War Two with him, he was a good man.”

Gwen knew from the way Arthur’s knuckled tightened into fists in his lap that she was not the only one to pick up on the hesitation over the word friend. She let the conversation drop and sat back in the seat, sending out a silent prayer that Elena was somewhere safe and warm. And they would meet up again soon.

￼￼

 

Merlin knew how hard this would be for Arthur. Everything he had been and everything he had worked for had been for Camelot. He had given his life for the kingdom. The last time Merlin had seen it was seven decades ago, and as they drove up to it, there wasn’t much difference. Only a few walls remained. The hill was a grassy slope and the forests had been mostly lost with the industrial revolution, which saw the massive caves exploited for natural resources. Those centuries had rid the land of the few landmarks which had been left from so many centuries ago. It was a miracle that the few walls had even remained. 

After the mines had run low on natural resources and the mining operations slowed to a halt, the land had been let go, and it was now closer to a rural environment once again. For Merlin, who had seen it at its worse, with black smoke and fog choking the people and miscolouring the moths, this was a pleasant surprise. 

For Arthur though, who had only been in the Camelot of old several days ago, there was no comfort to be had here. 

“I’ll wait in the car,” Gwen said softly. 

When there was just the two of them, Merlin approached where Arthur stood in the middle of the ruins. 

“This is not Camelot,” Arthur said, absolutely furious.

“Not anymore,” Merlin agreed. 

“This is impossible, you expect me to believe that this ... I don’t see one landmark here.” Arthur said in complete denial. 

“Arthur,” Merlin said softly. “It’s been a thousand years. It’s gone.”

“How?” Arthur asked. 

“How what?” 

“How did Camelot fall?” Arthur demanded, suddenly focused only on Merlin. 

“Time,” Merlin said. “Nothing lasts forever. Saxons came back, Camelot lasted through Gwen’s reign, until she was old and feeble with no heir. Then the kingdoms fought for dominance, the saxons returned and time swept it all away.” 

“Time hasn’t touched you,” Arthur said. “You look the exact same as the day I died.”

“I look whatever age I want to look,” Merlin replied. 

“Of course, Dragoon,” Arthur scoffed. 

“You almost recognized me the first time by my eyes,” Merlin remembered. “I panicked and knocked you out with a helmet.”

“You look ridiculous as an old man,” Arthur said. 

“Thanks, I am sure you’ll look any better,” Merlin teased. 

“Of course I will, I am ...” Arthur froze and stared down at the grass under his feet. “I am no one.”

“Don’t say that,” Merlin said. “You’re still King.”

“You heard Gwen,” Arthur scoffed, pointing at the ruins that surround them. “I am no King. There are no people, no kingdom. Camelot is gone.”

“You’re my King,” Merlin reminded him. Older and more assured of himself then he had ever been during Arthur’s reign, he closed the barrier between them to show his devotion in the only way Arthur had ever learned anything - physically. 

He kissed him with the love and devotion he had always only had for Arthur. Breaking away he cupped Arthur’s cheek. 

“You are everything that has ever mattered,” Merlin stated. 

“Gwen is watching,” Arthur said, glancing guiltily back towards the car. Merlin followed his gaze and saw Gwen give him two thumbs up for approval. Laughing suddenly, he turned back to meet Arthur’s happy but confused gaze. 

“I think she’s fine with it,” Merlin said. “But I’ve already waited a thousand years, I can wait however long it takes for you to be ready.”

Back in the car the three of them sat in silence. 

“We have to stay the night,” Gwen finally said. “In case Gwaine and Elena catch up.” 

Merlin did not have the heart to mention how unlikely that was. He simply nodded and said, “we can sleep in the car.”

“How did this happen? The ... zombie thing?” Arthur asked. 

“Do you remember, the Samhain Feast just before your father passed away?” Merlin asked. 

“When Morgana tore the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead?” Arthur said, shivering at the memory of the terror his people had faced. 

“She did more than that,” Merlin said. “It was forever damaged. It took only a few hundred years for the first episode to happen.”

“You mean this happened earlier than the twentieth-century?” Gwen asked. He wasn’t surprised that she was shocked. Her entire life, everyone would have agreed that the illness had hit at the turn of the twentieth-century. 

“It’s not talked as much over here, but it started with an early American colony,” Merlin explained. “I was trying to make a working as an artist at the time -”

“You, an artist?” Arthur laughed, causing Merlin to blush. 

“I’m sure you were a wonderful artist Merlin,” Gwen said sweetly. 

“No, ah, actually, I was quite terrible at it, but that’s not ... anyways, that’s not the point, the point is that the entire colony disappeared, with only the words croatoan left behind carved into a pole. There was some speculation that it was illness, but I knew there had been magic involved. Powerful magic that I could have felt it from where I was living in France at the time,” Merlin said. 

“You lived in France?” Arthur asked. 

“Yes,” Merlin said, fidgeting uncomfortable as he remembered the time as a more decadent period of his life, where new drugs and vices were being brought in from every corner of the world and if you knew the right people, everything came easy, even the sex. 

“It happened at the beginning once a century and then more and more often, but the illness would target such a small area and everyone infected would usually disappear within a few hours, taken by the gatekeeper into the veil, reclaimed for the damage Morgana did. When it started to hit larger areas and last longer, that’s when people started to notice what was happening.” Merlin explained. 

“So all this happened, because Morgana tore the veil,” Arthur said. “Did she know?” 

“I don’t know Arthur,” Merlin sighed. “I hope not.”

“But Lancelot sacrificed himself,” Arthur shook his head. “We went to the Isle of the Blessed and we restored the veil.” 

“There are some wounds which can never be healed,” Merlin said, feeling the ancient pull of the years. “You cannot meddle with death and come out unscarred.”

He could see Gwen fidget in the backseat, and stopped himself from saying anything else. Death had hit her too close to home over the past few months and with Gwaine and Elena missing, it was too sore a topic. 

“And there is no way to stop this curse,” Arthur persisted. “Gaius told me, right before I died, he said you were the most powerful sorcerer to ever live.”

“Arthur, you more than anyone should understand that having power does not mean you can just do whatever you wish,” Merlin said. 

Arthur sat back and said nothing. Merlin followed his gaze to the ruins of Camelot. Reaching over he grabbed Arthur’s shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. 

“Hey guys,” Gwen piped up, causing both men to turn back and look at her. “I dibs the backseat for sleeping.”

 

￼

“Morning,” Gwen said brightly as she stretched widely. She grinned at both Merlin and Arthur’s grimaces and sleep worn faces. “How’d you two sleep?”

“Haha,” Merlin intoned. “I had the shift stick poking me all night.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t Arthur?” Gwen teased, causing Arthur to choke on his water mid-sip.

“You’re evil,” Merlin laughed, slapping Arthur on the back to get him breathing again. 

Smiling slightly, she looked down the road for any sign of Kilgarragh, Gwaine or Elena. The smile faded from her face as she saw no sign of anyone. 

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Arthur said, but Gwen could tell by his tone that he held no hope for them. Scavenging houses was a dangerous job, and she could count on two hands the amount of near misses she had had over the months by going into random houses and stores. Even tasks as simple as collecting wood had a life or death challenge to them. 

Still, a small, childish part of Gwen hoped beyond hope that Elena and Gwaine were simply stuck somewhere safe and waiting for the opportunity to get to them. 

Turning back to the two men sharing a box of stale cereal between them as they drank water, Gwen thought back to her ideas last night. 

“Merlin, last night, you said your magic couldn’t fix this,” Gwen said, slowly broaching the subject. 

“Yes,” Merlin said. “It’s spread too far. I might be powerful, but I can’t save a whole world.”

“Now, I know the legends are off, I mean, for starters you and Arthur are about the same age, or ... er ... were ... you know, before you aged like a thousand years,” Gwen stumbled across her words. “But, um, in the legends, they say you could bend time. Can you?”

“Well ... yes,” Merlin shrugged, “I can speed it up and slow it down a bit, I’ve used it several times when we’ve been overrun with zombies, to give me time to blast them back.”

“But could you rewind time?” Gwen asked, holding her breathe, she could see Arthur slowly put down the cereal box, listening intensely. 

“I can’t go back in time. You can’t change your own timeline,” Merlin said, shaking his head. “I tried, so many times, after Camlaan. I became obsessed for about a century, going over the battle and what I should have done differently. It never worked.”

“But, what if it isn’t your timeline,” Gwen said in a rush. “I’m reincarnated, so it’s before my life. What if you could send me back and I could stop this from happening.”

“No, Gwen, it would be too dangerous,” Merlin argued.

“But is it impossible?” Gwen asked.

“Gwen,” Merlin pleaded.

“Is it impossible?”

“No,” Merlin admitted. “I think I could do that, but Gwen it could kill you.”

“And staying here won’t?” Gwen argued. “We’re all living on borrowed time right now. You said it yourself, we can’t save the entire world. We can’t miraculously cure nine billion people.”

“Nine billion?” Arthur exclaimed, though he was quickly ignored. 

“If there is a chance that this could stop it, what have we got to lose?” Gwen asked. 

“You. We could lose you,” Merlin said. “In theory this could work, but it could also completely backfire and I could kill you. Even if it did work, I have no idea what would happen to the past you, or if you would appear out of no where - in which case you would probably be killed for being a witch.” 

“It is worth the chance,” Gwen said. “If we can save everyone. My family, my friends ... how can we not do this?” 

“You won’t even know the layout of the castle,” Merlin argued. 

“If you had this chance, would you take it?” Gwen asked. 

“It’s different,” Merlin muttered. 

“No it’s not, it is exactly the same,” Gwen said. 

“If you’re going to go, then you’ll need to know the layout,” Arthur said, finally speaking up and causing both Gwen and Merlin to stop bickering. Gwen couldn’t help the smile erupting from her face. 

“No, Arthur, you can’t be serious,” Merlin groaned.

“I am completely serious,” Arthur said. “If Gwen is determined to do this, then we need to prepare her for it.”

“And what if I fail again?” Merlin asked, and Gwen felt horrible making Merlin sound so weak, but she held her ground. She knew she was right. 

“You won’t,” Arthur said, sliding a slight guilty look towards Gwen for some reason, before leaning forward and kissing Merlin gently. Gwen could see Merlin melt into it and could not hide her smile at the dazed look on his face when Arthur leaned back. Another guilty look from Arthur and Gwen finally clued in. 

“Oh, I am totally okay with you two having sex,” Gwen assured him, causing both men to blush horribly and splutter. 

“You’ve been around Elena too long,” Merlin complained. 

“Maybe,” Gwen said, trying to ignore the worry which pierced her at the thought of her missing friend. 

“Okay, let’s get you ready,” Arthur said. “First thing you need to know ...”

￼

 

Merlin tried to hide his nerves by going over his hand written notes. It was worse than cramming for an exam or anything else. Gwen’s life was on the line this time and it hung over his head with every passing second. 

“Are you ready?” Arthur asked as the sun began to set. 

“No,” Merlin laughed shakily. “Do you know how many things could go wrong?” 

“It will be fine,” Arthur said calmly. 

“I mean, even if it does work, who is to say that it won’t cause a separate reality and we’ll be stuck in this world forever. Or if it does work, then why would the reincarnated Gwen go back? We could be creating a massive paradox right now, and for all we know the entire world will crumple into nothing,” Merlin ranted. 

“God, you’re always such a girl about these things Merlin,” Arthur sighed, smiling at him infuriatingly. 

“Girl isn’t much of an insult in the twenty-first century Arthur,” Merlin quipped. “How can you be so calm about this?”

“Because I believe in you and Gwen,” Arthur said simply. “And I’ve now seen that woman kill several zombies and I think I might be slightly scared of her.”

Laughing, Merlin couldn’t help but smile back at Arthur. 

“I’m happy you’re back,” Merlin said. 

“Me too,” Arthur responded. 

“You two ready to get this show on the road,” Gwen asked, so nervous that she practically vibrated where she stood. 

“Yes,” Arthur said for them. 

“If at any time, you decide to stop just say so,” Merlin said. “I can stop the spell at any time.” 

“I won’t,” Gwen said, so sure of it that Merlin could do little more than nod his head. 

The spell was simple in principle, a few words and the right amount of willpower to bend the elements to his wishes, and it would be done. He paused, swallowed thickly and gathered Gwen into a tight hug. 

“See you on the flip side,” Gwen teased, but her smile died quickly and she tightened her grip on his shoulder. “If this doesn’t work, you two take care of each other.”

“We always do,” Arthur promised. 

“And none of this stupid dancing around each other business, we’re not married and you are free to shag whoever you want,” Gwen pressed on.

“Um, right,” Arthur nodded his head. 

“Okay,” Gwen said, wiping her eyes. “I’m ready.”

“It will be quick,” Merlin promised. Holding up his hands, he took a step back, watching as Arthur stood behind him just in case. In case he fainted or if he was worried there would be a backlash against them he didn’t know. 

Saying the words he felt the magic explode within him, it had been so long since he had done anything so major and he could feel the pressure from all sides as the world tried to hinder him. But he pressed on, even as in some vague part of his mind, he could see the wind picking up and could feel Arthur grab him to steady himself against the rain and wind which swept around them. One final push and he could feel the world break and bend to his will. 

Before their eyes Gwen simply blinked out of existence.

_Time travel was not what Gwen expected ..._


	12. Samhain's Eve

  
**_~Camelot~  
Samhain's Eve_**

￼

Gwen stood beside Lancelot as they hid behind one of the pillars. The plan seemed simple enough. Strategically positioned behind the massive pillars of the ruins known as the Isle of the Blessed knights stood in wait for Morgana and Morgause. 

Despite her original plan to come here alone, she was happy for the knights to be with her. Even more than that, she was happy to have Merlin, Arthur, Gwaine and Elyan alive and beside her. No matter what happened Gwen was determined that they would not die again. 

It was not until the moment they stood waiting in positions that Gwen suddenly realised that she had no idea what the women even looked like. Another flaw in the plan.

Lancelot was vigilant in his watch of the long stone chamber. 

Gwen took the moment to examine his profile. He was so righteous and good-looking and every time he looked at her, it was if the sun and moon rose around her. She did not understand why she had not stayed with him, why they were not together. 

“I am an idiot,” Gwen said without thinking. Blushing a deep red she quickly looked away as Lancelot looked at her quizzically. 

“What did you say?” Lancelot asked. 

“Nothing,” Gwen stuttered. “Just thinking out loud.”

“Why would you be an idiot?” Lancelot asked. 

“I just don’t understand why past me is not with you,” Gwen admitted. “What happened?”

“Arthur’s a better man,” he said, looking away. 

“No, that can’t be it,” Gwen said, causing Lancelot to grimace. “I might not be the exact same person, but I know me. If past me was even slightly like current me, then I would not move on to someone else unless I thought there was no chance in hell we could work. What happened to us?”

“I left,” Lancelot admitted. “The first time, before anything could really happen, I was forced by Uther into exile. The second time ... I could see how much Arthur cared for you and ... I could not stand between you and your happiness.”

“What did I say?” Gwen asked. 

“You did not say anything,” Lancelot said. “I left before the morning light, to make it easier for everyone.”

Gwen leaned against the stone pillar and stared at the wall. Her brain tried to process what Lancelot was telling her. 

“Lancelot, can you promise me something?” Gwen asked.

“Anything.”

“I would really like to get to know you better. As my friend Elena would say I would like to get to know you in a way that has both of us naked and having lots of sex ... once we stop Morgana and save the future. However, what you just said ... that will only happen if you promise to never make a decision for me and promise to actually talk to me before you decide to be an ass, okay?” Gwen asked. 

“I am not sure what to say to that,” Lancelot admitted. 

“Hopefully that you agree,” Gwen smiled shyly at him. 

“Then yes, of course, my lady,” Lancelot said, smiling down at her and making Gwen blush as her cheeks hurt from the stupid grin on her face. The smile faded when the knight that had been keeping watch for approaching boats, the blonde haired man known as Leon, came running back into the room. He quickly joined Arthur and Merlin behind their pillar and even though she could not make out what was being said, she knew it would only be about one thing. 

“It’s time,” Lancelot said, shifting his grip on his sword and bringing it to the ready. 

Gwen swallowed dryly and waited to see the supposed dark witches who would bring about the zombie apocalypse. 

She heard them before she saw them. The shuffled sounds of their footsteps and their slow pace reminding her of the tell-tale sounds of the monsters they were about to release onto the world. The amount that she hated the two women approaching surprised herself with the strength and violence of it. 

“Sister,” a voice said, trembling slightly. The shuffled footsteps stopped and Gwen could see the other knights preparing to surround the women. “I am not sure I can do this.”

Gwen could not understand why they were waiting or what Arthur was hesitating about. Morgana was in the room and if they didn’t get them now, it would be too late. 

Gwen did not realise she had started to step forward before Lancelot had reached out. Stopping her by lightly gripping her arm, Gwen looked back at him in confusion and he simply shook his head. 

“Morgana,” Arthur said, stepping forward with only Merlin beside him. All the other knights and Gwen stayed hidden and she was not sure if this was such a good plan. 

“Arthur?” Morgana said, obviously not expecting to see him here. Her voice shook with nerves and Gwen could not contain herself anymore. She needed to see what this woman looked like. 

Peeking out from the pillar she finally saw what Morgana looked like. 

She had dark hair that was matted and a gorgeous pale face. Despite the dark material Morgana had draped over herself in the shape of a dress, there was something very pretty about her. Gwen could imagine that she had once looked very nice when donned in the fancy dresses she had seen at the courts of Camelot. She could feel that hatred inside of her growing just watching this woman who would destroy the world. 

“You cannot stop us,” a blonde woman hissed. Gwen assumed she was Morgause. Unlike the dark -haired woman, this one showed no sign of compassion or emotion towards Arthur other than hatred. “We are priestesses of the Old Religion. You have no power here.”

“I cannot allow you to do this,” Arthur said, completely ignoring Morgause who seemed unable to even stand on her own. “You do not know what you are doing Morgana. You do not understand what this magic will do.”

“He is telling the truth Morgana,” Merlin said. 

The shrill laugh that came out from Morgana was bone-chilling. Full of venom she said, “And what would you know about magic?”

Gwen was out of Lancelot’s grasp and striding across the stone chamber before anyone could stop her. Obviously not expecting her, all four people stood frozen as Gwen pushed Morgause down and tackled Morgana. The impact of the stone floor was jarring, but Gwen did not let that deter her. 

Grabbing hold of the dark brown hair, she slammed Morgana’s head back to keep her disoriented. 

“Gwen?” She gasped. 

“Morgana!” Morgause called out, but Lancelot’s blade quickly pressed against her neck and immobilized her. 

“Do you know who I am?” Gwen asked dangerously. 

Watching Morgana’s eyes starting to turn gold, Gwen quickly punched her. Feeling a bit better about splitting the lip of the woman who would end the world. 

“Who am I?” Gwen demanded. 

“You’re Gwen,” Morgana gasped. “My old maid.”

“I was never your maid,” Gwen said. “I was a student. A thousand years from now, I was just a normal girl until your curse finally caught up with us.”

She stared down into Morgana’s frightened blue eyes and thought of what Merlin had said only a week ago, but over a thousand years in the future. Following his instructions, she pressed Morgana’s hands against her temples and tried hard to remember every detail of the infected, of evacuations and Zones. 

“When you ripped the veil you turned all of us into the walking dead. You sold our souls,” Gwen said, feeling tears well up as she thought hard about watching Gaius being shot down and killing the infected herself. “No one knew what was happening. Just that there was a sickness spreading and no one survived it. In the matter of days it would claim whole cities. And everyone would just disappear. Then it got bigger. Do you know what the illness did?”

Morgana’s eyes were glazed over as she was forced to relive Gwen’s memories. 

“First you got bitten by someone who was infected, and if you survived the attack, you would get the fever. A fever that would burn out your very soul until there was nothing of you left. You would become a walking corpse with only one thought, one emotion. A hunger for human flesh. You would walk the countryside as your body decomposed and if you found a human you would eat them as they screamed or if they got away, they would turn into you.”

“How are you doing this?” Morgana gasped. 

“You’re a seer,” Gwen said. “I am making you see.”

“Stop,” Morgana begged. 

This was enough. When Arthur, Merlin and her had planned how to handle Morgana, this had been all she would show her. But now, in the moment, it wasn’t enough. Gwen needed her to know everything. Thinking hard on being reincarnated and how everyone she had ever known or loved had died from the infected, of the people she had grown up with being the zombies she had killed in her small town. 

“You killed my father, my brother,” Gwen cried out. “Your father might have persecuted magic users but you destroyed the world Morgana Pendragon.”

Morgana cried out in pain. A part of Gwen felt an itch to grab her dagger. She could feel where it rested against side and it would be so easy to simply kill this woman. Morgana obviously saw this, her movements stilling as she saw the memory of Gwen killing Valiant and felt her ice-cold hatred.

Letting go of Morgana, Gwen stepped back and got off the prone body beneath her. 

“I promised the future Arthur that I would give you a chance,” Gwen said. “So I am giving you one warning. If you ever harm any of the people I love. Even one hair of Merlin’s head or look the wrong way at Elyan. I will kill you.”

Stepping back she let the other knights rush past her. They clamped iron manacles around her wrists and wrenched her off the ground. 

“Sister!” Morgause called out and with gold eyes Lancelot was tossed threw the air, just as Merlin had done with the zombies so many times. But Gwen knew how to fight against this type of magic. She had fought side by side with Merlin for months. 

As Morgause’s eyes once again turned golden, Gwen quickly hit the ground and rolled out from the attack, jumping back onto her feet as she felt the blast wave pass by over her head. Running towards Morgause, she saw another attack come towards her. 

Once again falling to the floor and rolling underneath the attack, she quickly got back up onto her feet, barely noticing the clatter of armour while Knights were sent flying. Reaching out for Lancelot’s sword, she used her momentum to help her slam the heavy hilt against the deformed face of the blonde woman. Morgause crumpled against the cold stone floor.

Throwing the sword away and kneeling down she checked the pulse point. 

“You killed her, I will kill you,” Morgana spat, but Gwen could see the vulnerability in the threat and could remember the out of body experience of losing Elyan. While a part of her felt a connection with the witch, she reminded herself of the atrocities that she had been about to release against the world and steeled herself. 

“She’s just knocked out,” Gwen said coldly. “If I had wanted to kill her she would be dead.”

“Percival, get her to the boat,” Arthur commanded and the large man lifted Morgana as if she were a sack of potatoes. “We need to move out.”

“What about Morgause?” Merlin asked quietly, his eyes never leaving the prone figure. “I don’t think she will last much longer.”

Gwen did not question how Merlin would know something like that. She had seen him work too many miracles to be questioning him now. Arthur just shook his head tiredly. 

“Leave her,” Arthur said. “She is in no shape to be causing much trouble for us.”

It was a horrible idea, Gwen thought. There was no way that someone who hated Arthur that much, who had been willing to curse the world to its doom for some petty form of revenge, should be allowed to walk free. But Merlin agreed and so Gwen held her tongue. 

“Are you okay?” Lancelot asked, retrieving his sword. 

Nodding, Gwen smiled shyly. “You?”

“As a Knight of Camelot I think I am starting to get used to being thrown around,” Lancelot teased hesitantly, eyeing Gwen carefully. “I thought you were going to kill her.”

“It might have ripped the veil,” Gwen said. “And I promised Arthur.”

“It’s Samhain now, you did it,” Lancelot said, placing a comforting hand against her back as they walked out of the cavernous chamber. 

Swallowing thickly Gwen nodded trying to feel something besides empty, lost and a little bit numb. 

Walking past Arthur and Merlin, Gwen hesitated and then brought them both into a tight hug. Blinking back her tears she wanted to thank them, to explain how amazing it was to know they had succeeded in her suicide mission, but she couldn’t. Instead she gave them both a quick pat on the cheek and after a few aborted attempt at trying to verbalize anything, she turned on her heel and grabbed Lancelot’s hand to follow the rest of the knights to the boat. 

 

￼

Despite what some people may think, Gwaine was not a fool. He had known there was something odd about Gwen from the first day when she had been brought in front of the courts of Camelot. He might not have known Gwen past the time she had turned down his irresistible charm, or how Lancelot would go on about her, or that Arthur thought highly of her - but she had been weird for days now.

Any confusion had been answered by simply eavesdropping on a few conversations. A time traveler was pretty interesting and though Gwaine was prone to be a bit suspicious of the story, he figured there must be some truth to it if Merlin, Lancelot and Arthur seemed to believe it. 

Now that they were halfway back to Camelot, Gwaine knew something would go wrong. He had seen the haunted eyes of Gwen and knew that there was no way that she would be able to let Morgana go. To have her family’s killer beside her, sleeping just a few cots away, Gwaine could not think of any man who would not be tempted. 

Just thinking of some version of Elyan being murdered by Morgana tempted Gwaine to put an end to her now before she caused trouble. 

Which is why he was now hiding in the bush. Well, not hiding per se, just being very silent in the dark shadow of the bush, watching as Gwen pretended to sleep beside Lancelot. 

Sure enough a few hours after everyone had gone to sleep, Gwaine watched Gwen get up and kept an eye on Elyan on watch as she slipped past the group. She was much quieter than most people were and Gwaine recognized the signs of someone who had lived on the run. 

Morgana was being held, chained to a tree and immobilized. Whatever Gwen had done to her seemed to have unhinged the woman. The entire time they traveled she kept clutching her head as if something pained her. Arthur hovered over her, protective and worried despite everything that had happened. 

Gwaine barely had time to get to her when he saw the flash of a dagger. Rushing forward, he grabbed her arm. Feeling her stiffen and remembering how the last time someone had grabbed her Gwen had proven to be a worthy adversary, Gwaine was careful to keep his grip firm yet gentle. 

“I would put that away,” Gwaine murmured softly so as not to draw Elyan’s attention from where he was on watch or wake up the soldiers sleeping a few feet away from them. “Do not do something you will regret.”

Gwen stared at him with wide eyes. He could feel her shivering against his grip and a small part of him worried that she would have another episode. Yet she did nothing to fight against him, for which Gwaine was thankful.

“Give me the dagger,” Gwaine said, slowly slipping his hands lower and prying the cold steel out of her limp fingers. “There we go.”

Once she was free of her weapon, she turned back away from Gwaine and stared down to where Morgana whimpered on the grass, in the throes of some nightmare. 

Gwen started to make her way into the forest towards the stream and away from their camp.

Following her quietly in the shadows, Gwaine kept her in his sight as she went to the rivers edge and sat down, bringing her knees to her chest so that she was a small ball. The dappled moonlight cast shadows around her and made Gwen appear otherworldly in her sorrow.

Trying to get a better view he stepped on a stick and it snapped so loudly it seemed as loud as thunder in the still forest. 

Gwen did not move though. 

Unable to keep hidden for any longer, Gwaine stepped into the small clearing and walked toward Gwen. 

She stared at him with hollow eyes. 

“I know you,” Gwen said softly and, despite how fragile she looked, her voice was strong. 

Gwaine nodded and took a seat beside Gwen. The damp ground soaked threw his trousers and was extremely uncomfortable. 

“We lived together for months,” Gwen explained. “You were with my best friend and before the world ended you were one of my teachers.”

“Me?” Gwaine laughed. “I find that hard to believe.”

“You specialized in the history of sex in Medieval culture,” Gwen explained. 

“Alright, that does sound a bit more like me,” Gwaine said thoughtfully. “I was probably the best teacher there was, wasn’t I? So goodlooking that all the students would want me.”

“Some things are definitely the same,” Gwen smiled indulgently and it looked beautiful on her face. He suddenly realized that he had never seen this version smile. It vanished almost as soon as it appeared. 

They sat in silence and listened to the sounds of trickling water over stones. 

“Why did you stop me?” she asked. 

“You are not a killer,” Gwaine said. As Gwen opened her mouth to argue that, Gwaine cut her off, “just because you killed someone does not mean you are a killer. How many Knights do you think have taken the lives of a fellow man? That does not mean we are murderers.” 

“I don’t know what to do,” Gwen confessed in a whisper, but her eyes were wide and lost with a wet sheen to them. “I’m scared.”

Not sure what to say, he put a comforting hand on her shoulder and let silence settle around them. The late hour was catching up with Gwaine who found it harder to stay awake. Still he sat in silence with Gwen. 

“I don’t know how Merlin did this,” Gwen whispered and her eyes roved over him wildly as if it pained her to look upon him and yet she could not look away. “How am I supposed to live with Elyan and not remember him being murdered every time I see him? Or speak with you and yet you do not remember living together? I never paid attention in your class, I have no idea how I am supposed to survive in this world.”

“You will be fine,” Gwaine assured her. “We won’t let anything happen to you.”

Gwen nodded tiredly and once again fell silent. 

“You should get some sleep,” Gwaine said. “Otherwise Lancelot and Arthur will think I stole their lady.”

Nodding tiredly, Gwen stood up and walked past Gwaine. He was surprised when arms wrapped around his front and Gwen hugged him from behind. Before he had time to relax Gwen let him go. 

“You are a good man,” she said. 

“Don’t tell people that,” Gwaine said. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

Shaking her head, Gwen said, “I am happy I get to know you again.”

Watching as Gwen walked away, Gwaine wished he had a drink to help straighten out his thoughts. Time travel was definitely not the sort of thing to try to understand in a sober state. Still, as Gwen disappeared he felt the dagger still in his hand and hoped he had done the right thing.

***

  
** Epilogue **

~Camelot~  
Arthur’s Birthday

“I must admit I was not expecting the invitation,” Elena said, unable to stop her mouth from chatting even as Arthur got quieter the more she blabbered. She always talked to much when she was nervous and considering the last time she had seen Arthur they had been moments away from being husband and wife, her nerves were frayed.

“We are always more than happy to have you,” Arthur said, but something was slightly off in his tone. 

Giving Arthur a large grin as they reached her room, she went to shake his hand in thanks. But her grip must have been too strong and enthusiastic because his Prince’s crown was crooked by the time she released him. 

Hearing some slight snickers from his manservant following behind them, Elena blushed horribly and realised that she had perhaps, once again, overstepped her bounds. 

“This is Guinevere,” Arthur announced, all but pushing a servant girl towards them. She seemed friendly enough. Her dark skin and hair looking very pretty in the pastel dress she was wearing. Elena tried not to fidget. She had never gotten used to having maids even though she had grown up with them. “Guinevere will be sure to give you everything you need.”

“Thank you,” Elena said graciously. 

“I will leave you to get settled,” Arthur said. “I will see you tonight at the feast.”

With that Arthur made a hasty exit and just before the door closed she saw the manservant fixing the Prince’s crown before sharing a quick kiss. Blushing deeply she glanced around to see if the maid had also noticed the Prince’s dalliance in the hallway. 

Guinevere did not seem bothered by the sight. 

“Er, are those two?” Elena asked, waving a hand to give explanation where words could not.

“Going at it like bunnies? Yes,” Guinevere said. 

Staring at the maid in shock that someone from her position would be talking so boldly, Elena could do little more than gape. Guinevere seemed to realise she had misspoken and stuttered slightly. Before she could apologize though, Elena laughed harder than she had in ages. A full body laugh which had her snorting and slapping her knee. 

“I like you,” Elena said brightly. “Guinevere was it?”

“It’s just Gwen,” the maid said. 

“So tell me, Gwen, do most Camelot men lean towards bedding men?” Elena asked. 

“Not all of them. In fact, I know one Knight in particular that you might like very much,” Gwen said. 

“Will he be at the feast?” Elena asked, eager to meet this Knight. 

“I believe Sir Gwaine will be at Arthur’s birthday feast,” Gwen said happily. “He is very good looking.”

“Excellent,” Elena laughed. “Well, if the performers and acrobats prove to be boring, I suppose I can always entertain myself with him.”

Elena smiled brilliantly as Gwen just giggled, not at all shocked by the conversation. Hooking their arms together she smiled brilliantly up at Gwen. Despite her initial reservations about returning perhaps Camelot would not be so bad after all. Gwen smiled shyly back at Elena. 

“I think we shall be very good friends,” Elena gushed, forcing Gwen to move swiftly down the corridors. “Now tell me more about this handsome Knight.”


End file.
